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(AP) SAN FRANCISCO Acorns, cartoon alter-egos and bubble-gum kitsch may not seem like the most intimidating weapons for a brazen cultural invasion, but those are the tools Henry Chon is brandishing.
The chief executive of Cyworld Inc. is hoping to translate the hugely popular Korean Web site Cyworld.com into a hip destination for American teens and 20-somethings. Chon and Cyworld's deep-pocketed backers in Seoul are betting the U.S. site, scheduled to launch Aug. 15, becomes as big a phenomenon here as in South Korea, where nine out of 10 citizens between 24 and 29 are members.
"Once Americans see the value of Cyworld, they'll make sure their friends and family use it," said Chon, who keeps photos of his daughter, Chloe, on his Cyworld home page. "We're here to build a meaningful, good community."
Critics question how an Asian company with fewer than 30 U.S. employees can compete against social networking giants like Myspace, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which has more than 100 million member profiles and an average of 230,000 new members every day, or The Facebook, which as more than 7.5 million members in high schools and colleges.
Even if it catches on with its target audience of people in their late teens, business experts say Cyworld, like Friendster or Xanga, could be eclipsed by a trendier site in the crowded social networking niche.
"In America, I'd say we're beyond saturation and we're quickly reaching a point of overkill," said Rob Enderle, an analyst who studies consumer behavior online. "So I'm not sure why a Korean company would want to try to compete."
Kristin Torres, a 17-year-old high school senior from Fresno, said defecting to Cyworld from Myspace, which she checks three or four times a day, would be tantamount to dumping 196 friends she has in her Myspace community.
"The likelihood that we'd all switch to another site well, I don't think that would happen, so I wouldn't have the same group of friends if I went to another site," Torres said.
In translating the site for Westerners, Cyworld has stripped down the text-heavy Korean model and eliminated some features for cell phones, a popular way of accessing the site in Cyworld's other markets: China, Japan and Taiwan. But competitors question whether Americans would develop a cultural affinity for the uniquely Asian look and feel of the site, owned by a subsidiary of mobile telecommunications congolmerate SK Telecom Co.
Although Asian companies prosper in the U.S. markets for automobiles and electronics, American Internet brands such as eBay, Google and Amazon have few significant foreign rivals. Yahoo the top Internet site in Japan, India and Taiwan doesn't merely tweak its American sites for users abroad but completely retools them for each market, said Yahoo Senior Vice President Brad Garlinghouse.
"The Korean market has been very innovative and has created new paradigms but in some ways they're unique to the Korean market and won't work here," Garlinghouse said.
Cyworld executives are hopeful that Americans will keep an open mind and at least check out the newest social networking player, which has a futuristic look and unique business model.
Cyworld is a virtual world unto itself. The centerpiece is the avatar a member's virtual alter-ego, a cartoon character who assumes the clothes, hairstyle and hobbies of the member's choosing. Avatars conduct their entire lives in Cyworld's parallel universe, visiting each other in forums dedicated to cooking or rock climbing. They visit "cybuddies" in three-dimensional "minihomes," decorated with art, electronics, furniture and stereo systems.
Cyworld's virtual economy centers on a currency called the dotori, Korean for "acorn." Members buy dotori with credit cards or in cash at convenience stores throughout South Korea. They purchase furnishings for their minihomes or buy their avatars special clothes or logos. They buy gifts such as get-well-soon cards and virtual flowers to appear in minirooms for convalescing.
The average Korean member buys about $7 worth of virtual couches, clothes and other items per year. Cyworld sells 200 million songs each year for about 50 cents each, making it second to Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes for global online music sales, executives said. The company is negotiating with American music labels to sell songs on its U.S. site.
Cyworld doesn't strive to enlarge a user's community of online cohorts or bring together strangers who might never meet in person. It emphasizes relationships between relatives, neighborhood friends and co-workers people who have already met in real life but yearn to also hang out in cyberspace. Cyworld aims to follow these groups from high school and college to the career track, dating, marriage and parenthood.
One in three South Koreans has an account, and an average of 6.2 million photos are posted each day. The average Korean user is 29, but executives say the U.S. average will be 10 years younger. About 200,000 Americans are beta-testing the site.
Cyworld, founded in 1999, isn't merely gunning to be America's favorite online hub. It wants to be no less than a global networking powerhouse, said Michael Streefland, vice president of marketing for Cyworld's U.S. operations.
"If we tried to create a Yankee-Doodle-and-NASCAR site, it would be a big mistake," said Streefland, who previously worked at BabyCenter.com, a networking site for pregnant women. "Our marching orders are to create a global site. The United States is so cross-cultural that if we can make it here we would have a scalable model that could be embraced in Europe and elsewhere."
Proponents say global domination may not be a far-fetched idea.
Cyworld keenly understands consumers in South Korea, where nearly three out of four homes have broadband Internet and technology giants like Microsoft Corp. and Motorola Inc. test products before launching them in the United States.
If Cyworld can thrive in one of the most technologically advanced nations, why not elsewhere? Within six months of its launch, Cyworld China had more than 1.8 million members.
"One of the most successful global brands is Samsung. They took a Korean conglomerate and built it into a huge marketing success," said Rohit Deshpande, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School. "Examples like this may be few and far between, but Cyworld could be at the start of this new wave of Asian companies that understand how to market on a global level."
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