Replies to This Discussion | 이 토론에 대한 답글들

Permalink Reply by Eun-Shil Park on January 23, 2012 at 4:56pm

The given link gives us a couple of real korean -eyecandies-! But as said in the article, who does care if they cannot be found easily by search engines like Google. I can imagine that korean websites can make much more money out of it if it is also accessable for non-Koreans. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brian on January 27, 2012 at 5:57am

Korean websites are designed by and for Koreans.  Why should they care if anyone else in a tiny minority can't view them?  It takes more time, effort and money to be compliant when an overwhelming majority of Koreans still use IE6.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brian Haferkamp on January 27, 2012 at 10:40am

It's no longer enough to be participating only in Korea. The world is being invited to come here and Korea is going out into the world. The world, for the most part, does not use IE 6 (thank goodness). Because of the realities of doing business on a global scale Korean companies can no longer create their information hubs just for Koreans.

An easy solution would be to add standards-compliant sites to their present websites. That way they can serve up an appropriate site to Non-IE browsers and mobile devices. It's not difficult, they just need to begin to understand that business is a two-way street. The world isn't always going to come to you.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eun-Shil Park on January 27, 2012 at 10:26pm

Yes indeed Brian: nowadays FB for example brings through an algorithm a new and better version to connect FB-adds to your FB-account. Since recently I get with my dutch account automatically customized Korean(!)adds on my page and so does my friends(who also includes non/Koreans but with an interest in Korea/Asia). We would love to shop and look around on these sites. But they are a bit difficult for us like the comments mentioned above. If you wnat to open those sites I get usually stucked....As much as foreigners should try to connect with Korea, also Korea can gain more benefits to do it visa versa...... 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Philipp Grunwald on February 5, 2012 at 10:09pm

I have to agree with Brian, but for a different reason: The problem for most is the "spilt milk".
They already invested in their websites. I am of the strong opinion that if a Korean company starts out now they should and can achieve all their goals for their Korean customers within Korea with a modern, standard-compliant website! Don't you think so Brian? But the problem is, as there is no incentive to do so just for the few expats, Asian teenage kids, gyopos and , they probably won't do it!

That it would do a lot of good to their image (and sales) they don't seem to think about that...I mean even a larger company should sure get away with 5.000 - 10.000 EUR (7.500 - 15.000 USD / 7.5 - 15 Mio KRW) for a good, future-proof website. I'm sure they could at least "zero out" concerning this investment!

And then the other point I would like to hear some specific arguments about: What about the growing amount of Korean users being mobile? Here in Seoul almost everyone I see already has a slate tablet! Especially so if they don't own an smartphone yet, well then they usually buy an iPad or Samsung Tab first! I constantly see idiots (male and even female) running around talking into their 7'inch Galaxy Tab's, which are clearly not suited as a phone, in ways that would make any Yoga student jealous. :D

With the 3rd generation of 10" iPads soon to arrive and the new Samsung Galaxy 8.9 and 10.1, how will Korean websites and website developers keep up? Build an app for every single website? *lol*

(My personal horror!...)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brian Haferkamp on February 6, 2012 at 8:28am

I know that Korean companies and organizations have probably spent considerable amounts of income on their current sites. That's why I suggested an add-on site that could be served to English-speakers.

On the mobile issue, I have an iPad and have little trouble seeing many Korean sites. I can't interact with them all the time, though. The clash of Flash and Apple happened in America, too. Flash for websites were all the rage ten years ago. Then Apple started gaining steam (they don't support Flash) and then there was the rise of Google Search (their bots can't index Flash sites). These two things, especially Google, led us to take on standards compliant coding. We used Flash because it could do things HTML code couldn't. Now, there are really no excuses to not use HTML, especially with the advent of HTML 5.

The new thing now is having one design that is responsive, meaning it can be viewed on any device because it is flexible. This means that we no longer have to serve up a mobile site and a desktop site. Korean companies may not get to this point because it requires really going for function over beauty. It would help to alleviate the mobile and global issues you mentioned above, though.

One last thing. My personal frustration with Korean sites is that they often put the most important parts of the website inside a Flash or graphic element. This prevents me from being able to use translation software in my browser that would make it easier to use their sites or from being able to copy and past information. Google can only translate code. If they were to switch over to standards-compliant sites, they might not need an English site at all, it could be translated in-browser.

I guess I'm a bit spoiled coming from America where we believe that site designers have a responsibility to make sure the design is the same experience for as many people as possible. We even still include work arounds for Internet Explorer 6.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Philipp Grunwald on February 6, 2012 at 11:06pm

Dear Mr. Haferkamp,

I don't think you are spoiled by this thought, I totally agree with you! About "copy and paste":

Frustrating and infuriating enough this isn't even possible on most major sites like Naver blogs or some government and institution websites! It is pretty sure on intention (sometimes with message) the stupid old thought of "ah this is how I protect my content from being stolen !!111!" LOL While I could easily take a screenshot and let Microsoft OneNote OCR extract the Hangeul (that is indeed what I do, if I really need to), but it takes a ********* lot of my time!
Each time. So I'd say Korean websites are "conservative" because their owners are.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dustin R Cook on February 15, 2012 at 1:29am

Actually only 24.6% of Koreans use IE6 (This is still quite a lot though not the overwhelming majority).  The rest are forced to keep IE6.  Besides that fact that less and less are slowly relying on IE6 I think your basic argument of "eh its too much time, effort, and money so I don't want to" is quite juvenile.  Especially when the reality is to optimize a website for multiple browsers or across multiple platforms is becoming a basic step for the online world.  As a graduate student now specializing in Digital Marketing I hear remarks similar to yours from the companies I work with and I hope that this negative stigma will change.  Reaching people in as many channels as possible and being accessible is what I have found to be a key factor for success.  That and listen to your customer.  These days in Korea and from listening to my friends Korea is changing and (although different for each company) I am sure their customers in general are telling them different, but they are not aware. 

Please keep this in mind.

• ▶ Reply