When in doubt...go gaming!

and use Korea as you test market

[GrendelKhan TSU]

Yahoo (korea) makes a new move.

Well, the Korean market is THE place to be for gaming stuff so....makes sense. If can't beat NHN, Daum et al here (which they can't)...go a different route all together!

go GAMES!

Haven't tried any of it out myself yet, but...heck, I like games! ^^

[koreaherald.co.kr...]

[bill]

So if this model is successful in Korea, Yahoo will export it to their other markets. That's an interesting tack. I always thought of game portals as separate from your everyday portal. Wouldn't gamers be going to specialized portals?

I get the feeling that Yahoo is stretching a bit here, but we'll have to wait and see where this goes. I'm sure Grendel wouldn't mind testing them out for us and reporting back. ;)

[itisgene]

Yeah...
Gaming is very popular in Korea.
I am not a "Gamer" but played a few classic games in Yahoo US and Yahoo Korea.
There is separate "Game Channel" on cable TV in Korea and there are quite a few PRO gamers, who makes 6 figures (in US Dollars). Many money making games are web based network games. (yahoo games are all free except a few gambling games)

It will be interesting to see how Yahoo Korea can get into this tough market...

[GrendelKhan TSU]

I always thought of game portals as separate from your everyday portal. Wouldn't gamers be going to specialized portals?

Not really. For example, the biggest game portal here Hangame was bought by NHN and often accredited to NHN's early success and launch into being the portal big boys.

though specialized portals exist and thrive, a huge amount of the traffic for portals comes via their game stuff.

I actually think this reverse tactic is very interesting...much like Daum going reverse direction with blogcommunity Cyworld stuff to the USA (if our other thread and prediction is correct), if handled right, it may actually do well, imo.