The Other Side of the Story

I will be on the road to Beijing and Seoul next week, and reporting about all the cool stuff we don't get here. And what they don't get there.

I will be going from China's Fire Wall to Korea's open connectivity. From China's knock off phones to experiencing Korea's internet frenzy.

Korea's internet usage jumped from 40% in 2000 to 70.7% in 2008, whereas theUS went from 44% in 2000 to 74% by 2008. Both countries are neck to neck in the race to internet usage. China lags behind at Internet users as of Jun/09, 25.3%, one reason being that estimates are that only 45 to 60 million people have computers or instant access to computers (the workplace or school), but 1/10th of the population use IM to communicate through their cellphones; an estimated 680 million mobile phone users in 2009. In China, the cellphone is the computer.

"South Korea dramatically improved the speed, quality and availability of its Internet service in 2009, pushing past Japan, the former worldwide leader, according to a team of business students from the University of Oxford in England and the University of Oviedo in Spain." - CNN Money Oct. 10.09

According to Cisco, in a study of 66 countries and 240 cities, the ranking included the number of homes connected to the internet. South Korea had 97% whereas Hong Kong had 99%, near complete city wide connectivity. South Korea ranks #1 in broadband leadership, and the US is ranked #15.

What does it mean to be 97% connected? And how does that reliance affect their social interactions?

So what applications are they using in China? In Korea? What information is filtered and what not? Throughout my trip I will be posting photos and a diary of my personal observations, from the airports to the street corners.

See on the other side.

Image: Ophelia Chong / Flying Man