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The reasons given for shunning email are that it's impossible to tell whether an addressee has received a message right away and replies are not immediately forthcoming. Still another reason is that you send messages through SMS or messenger as if you were playing a game, while doing so through email makes you feel as if you are doing homework or performing a task. "The new generation hate agonizing and waiting and tend to express their feelings immediately," said Professor Lee. "The decline of email is a natural outcome reflecting such characteristics of the new generation."
Although it does appear that there is a decline in e-mail use in Korea according to this article, you have to keep in mind that this is a survey of middle, high school and college students. That generation's desire for quicker and more instantaneous communication makes sense. IM is becoming a more widely used tool, and I could certainly see where it has benefits over e-mail.
Does the Korean trend foreshadow a decline in e-mail use in other areas?
Onya
Woz
Being a relic from the dial-up-300-baud-modem-BBS world I can see where I might miss something like this. The Cyworld model seems to be hyper-connected. We're not looking at a person with an e-mail address and IM, it's even more connected than that. I think you've got to be of a certain mindset to be able to embrace that much connectivity (e.g., young, hyper ;-) ).
interesting. I was thinking about this once...seeing some of my *younger* associates literally typing as fast on there mobile than on a keyboard.
but I'd say the article over shoots the conclusion. Its an interesting survey for sure...but what it says for email overall is way overshot imo.
1. they ARE all young and student types....which also means they all never WORKED in a "real" job. You do NOT use SMS much for real job communications. Email is still king and will be for any timeline that is interesting. They DO use (much to my surprise when I first got here) chat A LOT for actual work communications (ie: not just fun chatting). So thinking of desktop chat vs. mobile sms "chat" I think would be more interesting.
tracking, sorting and attachments, integration with outlook etc....these are all issue that SMS still has too much a disadvantage and took limiting even if the tech was there (screen size). Remember, these people probably never had to sit at a desk for 8 hours doing WORK (opposed to studying or being in school). We all know there IS a difference.
there are couple online scheduling and project management services slowly growing in popularity here that effectively use sms to notify you of messages etc. But the actual main communications is still email or their in-house private message or forum postings.
I DO think SMS will defiintely take a more important role in years to come and probably in ways we can currently don't imagine. But it'll never really replace email (though email itself could "evolve"). Remember when people said the digital tablets/internet etc would replace books? *rolleyes* Books aren't going anywhere either. No really. lol
2. this I think would be isolated to korea even if there was some kinda of (minor) shift to SMS once these people got older. (again, increase in importance...not complete replacement of email).
why? simple. Korean is A LOT easier to SMS then english. Impossible to describe here, but just take it that korean characters and korean written language lend themselves well to the keypad format (don't know about chinesse or japanese). But unless a new, radically different approach to english SMS via mobile happens...its no where near as fast. (eg: takes too long to get to "C"---gotta hit number "2" key three time to get through A B C. Get a double lettered word (occasion--2 consecutive "C"s) and I wanna die waiting for it accept the first C and allow me to type it again.) remember this is basically meant to be typing. a moment's pause for a character to type is an eternity.
sure you get chat type shorthand going on...but ultimately....its still gotta be easier.
Gaming stuff will help further SMS in new exciting ways...I see some cool stuff and exciting phones out here to handle more intensive stuff.....
but again, there needs to be a COPERNICAN or KUHNIAN ((not evolutionary) shift in the technology AS WELL AS the behavior of older (especially, in the work environment) for it to "threaten" email as the standard communication tool, imo.
note: competitive telecom companies block service from other companies phones while in their offices.
I've barely touched on korean portal stuff honestly. And to get into the often weird but always impressive mobile stuff here would be a huge forum in itself. ;)
its safe to say...sms is preferred WHEN USING MOBILE as opposed to emailing via mobile phone (which possible but not used nearly as much as just SMS). So if the email function dropped off my mobile service...I'd barely notice.
in other words, IF the population or technology for some radical reason all jumps to using MOBILE PHONES over their DESKTOP COMPUTERS...thheeeeen we got a real argument for SMS being the death noll for email.
but otherwise, I'm too worried that my email address will be irrelevant in korea anytime soon. ;)
Korean is A LOT easier to SMS then english. Impossible to describe here, but just take it that korean characters and korean written language lend themselves well to the keypad format (don't know about chinesse or japanese)
The down-side of this in Japan is that a lot of people (not just the younger generation) are losing their ability to write kanji (Chinese characters). they can read them, but handwriting is a big problem for a lot of people that use their phones or PCs to communicate. They're losing their language skills to some extent.
1. they ARE all young and student types....which also means they all never WORKED in a "real" job.
I agree that the article jumped to a few too many conclusions. The article title was a bit dramatic and it certainly grabbed my attention. However, I don't see e-mail going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
Thinking about this, I keep coming back to Grendel's thread about the diversity of portal/engine interfaces and usage. I have to wonder if the Koreans are way ahead of the rest of us.
btw..I'll say it again...I really think US portals will eventually pick up stuff from the korean ones.
Like, I'm just wonder who will be the first to do a "combined search SERP" where the results are taken from different sources (web, directory, image, etc) and presented TOGETHER on a very long SERP result. A "small guy" is most likely candidate or Yahoo down the line.
Stuff is already happening...like Yahoo already did with the BUZZ LOG...which is totally a page outta the yahoo korea books.
There are more of course, but tha'ts another thread I supposed ......... ;)
similar to the american/ demographics who visit, stileproject,hotornot, consumptionjunction, rateme sites.(dont know female equivalent sites)
the largest % of users are female.
korean men are much more feminine.
If it was introduced into western countries, it would need a lot of marketing the 'butch' tough image.
(korean guys dont mind having flowers, puppies, love poems etc on their pages)
There are some guys who want to decorate their web sites with flowers, puppies, etc. But that is same in the US, too. I said "Some guys". not all or a lot.
Anyways, many Koreans use those portal+Blog style community sites to communicate with their friends, including female friends. They may want to impress their girl freinds with cute web sites.
Well, my web sites are dry and thus(?) manly not girly...?!
BTW, I think email is still necessity in Korea because you can store emails longer than SMS. At work, emails will be used more. That's for sure...
cyworld is a small market in korea.
It is used by young people/highschool/univ
I disagree thoroughly.
1. It has about 12 million verifiably UNIQUE members (since you need to use your korean citizen registration number to register). That's a BIG market in ANY country, but for a country as small as Korea, its extraordinary. That's what? A quarter of the entire population of the country and about half of the entire internet population?
"Small" is NOT the word I'd use.
2. Certainly, youngerISH market is its largest demo, but
cyworld (and similar Daum planet and others) has a significant prevelance 20s through mid-30s demographics (male and female) ....which is not really as "young" (as you are infering).
Further, cyworld is used EXTENSIVELY as promotional tools for big companies, personalities, celebrities (actors, actresses, public figures etc). They are targeting younger audiences perhaps, but its now seen as valid promotional channel/collateral for ALL ages.
I agree about it being "too cute" for US.....and have stated similar in several other threads. But notice, LYCOS CIRCLES is the same concept implemented by Daum in the US.....but sans cutesy stuff. So, they aren't THAT clueless as to cultural differences.
3. and to reiterate so not digress tooo much.........
imo: Email ain't going anywhere anytime soon. It may EVOLVE but it won't be replaced by sms.
just out of curiosity, in korea what would the biggest desktop email client be? is it microsoft dominated there?
can't say officially...but if I'd give an educated guess I'd say yes. outlook and outlook express.
I know of some korean email clients...but I know at my office and every office I visit seems to be ms.
