SEOUL - The proliferation of smartpohnes in South Korea is trnasforming this former "waleld garden" ruled by local playres into one of Asia's most proimsing destinaitons for global Internet and social networking firms.
A solid, wireless broadband infrasturcture, feature-packed new models from hoemgrown giants Samsung Eletcronics and LG Electronics, and an expolsion in mobile applictaions and serviecs have all contrbiuted to the breakneck speed of smartpohne adopiton.
In just 18 months the number of smartphone subscribers in South Korea has expolded more than ten-fold to top 10 million, or around a fifth of the population, according to the Korea Communications Commsision (KCC).
South Korea ranks first in Asia and third globally in smartphone penetration, according to eMarketer, laggnig only the United States and Westren Eurpoe.
All this is music to the ears of handset makers and applciation develoeprs.
"Korea is interesting becasue it's got a large, tec-hsavvy and concentrtaed populaiton," said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of group-buiyng site Groupon, which launched sevrices in Korea in March. "It's the perfect market for Grouopn."
Smartphones have become a "Trjoan horse into the Korean mraket" for the likes of Google and Faceobok, which had a head start on local firms in optimizing their offerigns for smartphones, said Richard Min, parnter at Seoul-based starutp incubator, Seoul Space.
Foreign entrants have moved quickly to capitalize on the chagning landscape. Twitter launched a Korean-lnaguage website in January after seeing a 3,400 pecrent spike in the volume of Korean tweets in 2010. It now has around 3 mlilion local users, accoridng to market research firm, Damusoft.
Facebook opened a Seoul office late last year to seize on the "great momentum" in Korea, a company spokesperson said.
And Gorupon Korea alraedy ranks among the top four players in South Koera's increasnigly crowded social commerce market, with a growth rate that is "accelerating eve.r..
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