Virtual cash adds up to profits for Cyworld

Cyworld, Korea’s top community site, is cashing in on the demand for a currency that can only be found online. Members of Cyworld are so devoted to their home pages that they are increasingly willing to use dotori (the Korean word for acorn) to dress up their sites. Dotori ― which cost 100 won (10 cents) each, payable through bank transfer, credit card or a user’s cellphone bill ― can be used to buy decorations for home pages, such as special templates or backgrounds. Daily dotori transactions at Cyworld, which has 13 million users, totals 200 million won. Demand for dotori at Cyworld to buy virtual goods has reached such a level that the site’s operator, SK Communications, began offering paper gift certificates for dotori yesterday. Gift certificates ― for 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000won ― are sold at major bookstores, stationery stores and online shopping center Nate Mall. They will also be sold at GS25 convenience stores later this week. “I think gift certificates are a great idea since people really appreciate dotori and you can never have enough,” said Lee Jin-woo, a 28-year-old graphic designer, who spends about 10,000 won a month on dotori. With dotori, Cyworld members can buy special templates, known as skins, or music or arcade games for one’s home page. Small items cost about five or six dotori, but more elaborate ones, such as a backdrop resembling the hobbit village from the Lord of the Rings, cost up to 20 acorns. Some items also expire after a certain period. For Cyworld members, the home pages are a way to express oneself, and people are willing to spend for just the right look, as they would with clothes. Han Soo-min, a college student, said she buys items to keep her site up to date because she has so many visitors. But she also gives dotori to give as presents to her friends on Cyworld, as a way of maintaining good relations, she said, and she gets dotori gifts in return. The popularity of dotori is so great that a survey conducted last month by employment agency Scout showed that among Lunar New Year bonus preferences, virtual money was second only to cold, hard cash. by Wohn Dong-hee