Cash given for content

As competition to provide the best mobile phone contents heats up, the giants of the electronics industry are increasingly looking to enter into alliances with content providers. “Although cell phones are a great product, they are useless without great contents,” said Kim Seong-ho, an official in charge of content investment at KTBnetwork Co., an investment company. In recent months, large companies that make mobile devices or offer mobile services have increasingly been looking to small and medium content providers for their games, music and videos. Samsung Electronics decided to offer “Bio Hazard,” a game that Japanese Capcom Co. developed for the PlayStation 2, on its “game phones.” Korea’s largest electronics company had been searching for a game suitable for playing on a handset. “Wide-ranging and strong contents will increase the value of our cellular phones,” said an official at Samsung Electronics. Samsung also recently improved its Web site, “Anycall Land,” for its Anycall customers. The Web site, which boasts some 4 million members, allows them to download songs, music videos and games. The site gets an average of 180,000 hits per day. In addition, the “Anymotion” video for Samsung Electronics, which used an interesting storyline, polished music and dance routines to attract young customers, recorded 1.6 million downloads in just two months after its release in March. After SK Telecom took over YBM Seoul Records, the largest record company in Korea, and bought shares of IHQ Inc., an entertainment company, earlier this year, KT and KTF Co. are following in its footsteps. On June 16, KTF announced it was acquiring an 8-billion-won ($7.9-million) stake in a 30-billion-won investment fund for film production offered by Showbox Inc., a film investor and distributor. As a result, shares of content providers on the Kosdaq have shot up. Shares of Fantom Co., an entertainment company, have risen a staggering 2,351 percent this year, the most for any listed company. Shares of S.M. Entertainment Co. have soared 900 percent and Poibos Co. by 688 percent. by Lee Hee-sung, Park Sung-ha