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Computing & Internet Diffusion Summary With explosively increasing Internet usage and the supervision of a proactive government, the Internet is widely diffused in Korea. Now approximately half of the population is connected to the Internet and uses the mobile phones. Majority of these Internet users enjoy high-speed Internet access at relatively low costs.
Currently, KRNIC (Korea Network Information Center) carries out the registration service of .kr domains and provides statistics on the number of .kr domains by summing up the third level of domains. The second level .kr domains are .co.kr, .ac.kr, .re.kr, .ne.kr, .or.kr, .go.kr, .pe.kr and a region name.kr (for example seoul.kr). The trial service of second level domains for educational institutions (for example .kg.kr, .es.kr, .ms.kr, .hs.kr, .sc.kr) started in October 2000. The number of .kr domain has increased continuously, reaching to 517,354 (Source: KRNIC) at the end of 2000 compared to 24 in April 1993. In March 2001, the number of .kr domain name was 489,847 (Source: KRNIC). For distribution rate of .kr domains, company domains (.co.kr) shared the most (87.87%) followed by personal domains, .pe.kr (6.16%) and .or.kr (3.12) (Source: KRNIC).
The number of Internet users in Korea stood at approximately 22 million in June 2001 [1]. Korea ranked fifth in the world with 403 internet users per 1000 persons in 2000 [1]. Moreover, continuous improvements in high-speed internet access will provide a boost to the number of Internet users in the future. In addition, with 19 million people already using mobile phone-based Internet services as of April 2001, the population using wireless Internet services is growing rapidly [1]. The Number of Internet User
By the end of December 2000, the number of male Internet user was 10,830,000 (50.9%) whereas the number of female Internet users was 8,210,000 (38.6%) [1]. Consequently, the Internet usage growth rate for males was higher than females’. However, compared to those of August 2000, the number of female increased by 18.4 percent and the male by 14.6 percent [1]. Accordingly, the difference rate between male an Internet users has been continuously decreased . By the end of December 2000, the number of Internet users over fifty years old was 530,000 (5.7%) [1]. Over 1,530,000 (22.7%) Internet users were in their forties and 3,880,000 (43.6%) were in their thirties [1]. 6,310,000 young adults in their twenties (74.6%) used the Internet and children aged seven to nineteen were 6,790,000 (74.1%) [1]. The age group from seven to nineteen had the most Internet users compared to other age groups. Young adults in their twenties had the highest rate of Internet usage. However, compared with the rates in August 2000, the growth rates are as follows: 32.5 percent increase for people over fifty, 23.1 percent increase for people in their thirties, and 22.7 percent increase for users in their forties [1]. There was a 13.2 percent increase and 12.4 percent increase for people in their twenties and the seven to nineteen year old age bracket respectively [1]. This shows a rapid increase in Internet users who are over thirty. Internet users by occupation in December 2000 show that students (78.7%) and white collar workers (69%) shared the most, and those engaged in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (4.1%) show the lowest usage rate [1]. Compared with those of August, the growth rate of students and white collars were lower than those of other categories. Housewives (27.2%) have continuously increased [1]. Moreover, the growth of blue collars (23.7%) engaging in Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery (20.5%) and independent businessmen (18.8%) have increased gradually [1]. The main places where the Internet is used are at home (48.8%), Internet PC bang/Game rooms (19.5%), company offices (16.3%) and at schools (6.9%) [1]. Compared to the survey of August 2000, respondents who said they used the Internet at home or their company offices have increased by 3.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively [1]. Internet PC bang/Game room decreased by 6.1 percent. The fluctuation in numbers is because access to the Internet has become more available due to the spread of high-speed networks such as ADSL services. From the aspect of Internet access, 59.5 percent of Internet users access the Internet by using leased lines, while 35.4 percent use ADSL and 25.3 percent use dial-up modem [1].
Household 55 percent of the users access the Internet for Information search, followed by Entertainment/Games, E-mail, and Study [1]. Females tend to use the Internet for community activities such as E-mail, Chatting, and Shopping much more than males do. Government: In January 2000, concerning the number of government agency websites, special local administrative agencies showed the most website. Every agency appears to have one or more websites, especially, the special administrative agencies which provide many civil services such as the police, postal service and customs had an average of 1.5 websites [1]. The main services provided by government agency websites included most of the functions needed for public agencies such as the introduction of agencies, civil services, and free information supply. English-supported services and search engine services have shown to be less. Especially, educational administrative agencies, rarely provided information in English (4%) [1]. Business: 51 percent of the companies access the Internet at speeds of 56 Kbps or below and 13 percent of the companies that have Internet access are using T1 connections or faster cables [1]. Although more than half of all Internet users still access the Internet at speeds under 56 Kbps, it should be taken into account that when compared to 79 percent of all Internet users using 56 Kbps or lower connections, and only 5 percent using T1 or faster connections in 1999, Internet connection speeds have improved remarkably [1].
The host, as an index for the quantitative expansion of the Internet, is computers registered on the name server with IP address. The number of domestic host increased from 340,000 in 1998 to 480,000 in July 2000. There has been a surge in the number of domains registered with the "kr" suffix, rising from 207,023 in 1999 to 476,844 in March 2001 [1]. The number of IP addresses has risen as well, from 7.26 million in 1999 to 20.50 million in March 2001. as of March 2000, there were 88 ISPs ( Internet Service Providers), 81 of which were commercial operators [1].
Nowhere else in the world has broadband penetrated as deeply as in South Korea, where 50% of all online households are connected to a high-speed internet connection [6]. By contrast, less than 15% of US online households access the internet with broadband [6]. Figures from the Korean Ministry of Information and Communication indicate that there are currently over 4.3 million broadband households and over 20 million internet users. In addition there are approximately 26,000 Internet Cafés in South Korea, the vast majority of which have high-speed connections. All these figures put together mean that the overall broadband user base in South Korea is near 8 million -- 10 million active broadband users [6] . There are a number of significant reasons why broadband has taken off so rapidly in South Korea:
Broadband is now the norm rather than the exception in South Korea. It is not a luxury, as in many countries around the world, but a utility. It provides users with information and entertainment where and when they want it and facilitates the purchase of goods and services online.
In 2000, the Internet access service, especially, high-speed Internet access service has been rapidly spreading. As for subscription rates at high-speed Internet service providers, there are 3 kinds of fees: subscription installation fee, equipment rental fee, and monthly service fee. Charge System by ISPs
Service Fee of Online Service
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