Cyworld Lands on Myspace

In addition, Cyworld provides a paid music streaming service, which has been successful thanks to its cybermoney platform named "dotori," or acorn in Engish. The acorns, which can be paid for with cash, are used to make payments for virtual items. Some users are even setting up their online pages as shops.

American Potential

SK Comm has deployed a team in San Francisco to study the site’s feasibility to work in the American market. So far, the company has found the need to rid the site of features that may be too "cute" for American tastes, but still keep the bulk of the site in tact.

The U.S. version will launch in mid-August with just three major components: the mini-homepage, clubs, and the digital store. The team has also decided to add a navigation bar on each page so users can easily navigate as well as a "My Cyworld" tab that will give American users a single view of everything they and their friends have created.

Getting users to take notice of Cyworld may be a challenge. Studies have shown users to be surprisingly loyal to their sites. Nielsen reports MySpace has enjoyed the highest retention rate among all U.S social-networking sites, with 67 percent of all at-home visitors returning in April.

To fuel growth, new members to the U.S. Cyworld page will initially get free "dotori" when they sign up, promotional "dotori" from advertisers, and extra ones for referring friends or moderating clubs. Using that approach, Cyworld hopes to attract 2 million American members by the end of next year, with concurrent plans to bring the site to other countries.

On the web:

http://us.cyworld.com

http://www.myspace.com