17 Facts About Cyworld

Cyworld was originally part of SK communication, and became an independent company in 2014.

Cyworld is a rough equivalent to MySpace of the United States, with the main difference being that revenue is generated through the sale of dotori, or acorns, which can be used to purchase virtual goods, such as background music, pixelated furniture, and virtual appliances.

Cyworld launched in 1999 and was purchased by SK Communications in 2003.

Cyworld was wildly popular in its home market, with 2005 claims that nearly every South Korean in their twentiesand 25 percent of the South Korean population were users.

Cyworld wanted to create an Internet community that allowed people to form close relationships, rather than a community where people merely sought information for business prospects.

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The rapidly increasing number of subscribers was getting too difficult for Cyworld to manage on its own, and SK promised resources for further growth in the market.

Cyworld became a sensation among the Korean public, more than tripling in monthly visitors from early 2003 to November 2003.

Cyworld's success grew even further when it began to collaborate with Nate-on, the largest online messenger service in Korea and owned by SK.

Cyworld's declining market share was further aggravated by a 2011 data leakage.

Cyworld's reputation was tarnished and information-sensitive Koreans moved to other SNS service after the leakage.

Cyworld lost out to Japan's Mixi and exited the Japanese market in August 2008.

Cyworld entered the US market in 2006, believing that many US teenagers would use multiple social networks and seeking early access to a then-quickly growing market.

In 2006 Cyworld entered a joint venture with a German Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, T-Online, and launched its European version a year later.

Cyworld brought an end to its minihompy service on 31 September 2015 and had announced plans to change over to a new platform named Cyhome.

Cyworld uses its own virtual currency called dotori, or acorns.

In 2006, Cyworld received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for being an organization that has made the best use of IT for transformation.

Cyworld launched the "Cyworld BGM 2021" project which has artists remaking homepage hits.