Web sites come and go at rapid pace since 1999

Fierce competition and fast change in the Internet industry dethroned former leading Web sites that could not keep up the pace and, instead, new or small sites have taken their position. According to a report by Metrix Corp., a local Internet market research company, only Daum Communications Corp., Naver, which is operated by NHN Corp., and Yahoo! Korea remain among the top 10 Web sites in terms of the weekly number of visitors over the last five years. In June 1999, when Metrix started ranking Web sites, Yahoo! Korea topped the list, followed by Netian, Chollian, Daum, Shinbiro, Netsgo, Simmani, Naver, Channel i and Internet Empire. But the rankings have totally changed. This month, Daum had the most visitors due to its community services, and Naver ranked second because of the synergy that it gained after taking over Hangame, a game portal site, and because of the ‘Jisik In’ service, a Q&A service among users. Yahoo! Korea ranked fourth. On the other hand, Chollian and Netsgo, the Web sites that started from bulletin board-based communications, were swept away by the Internet changes. Chollian ranked 13th, and Netsgo was acquired by Nate.com of SK Group. Netian, one of the first generation Korean portals, which had competed with Daum and Yahoo! Korea, plunged to 23rd. Simmani, one of the leading Korean search engines, disappeared after being taken over by Chollian. Web sites of conglomerates, such as Hyundai’s Shinbiro and Channel i of LG, also fell. Shinbiro is now little more than a name, ranking 153rd, and Channel i and Internet Empire’s Web sites are gone. Instead, Bugs Music, an online music portal, Empas, Auction, Hanafos.com, BuddyBuddy and DreamWiz, which were unknown or did not even exist five years ago, took their positions. “There is no time and space limit on the Internet and users can move to another Web site whenever they want to,” an official of Metrix said. “The current leading Web sites could follow in the wake of ruined sites.” Meanwhile, yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the commercialization of the Internet in Korea. by Yoon Chang-hee