Online communities play an increasingly important role in developing new connections on the Internet. Yet many online communities have become victims of their own success. For example, Friendster [1], grew so quickly that genuine meaning seems compromised when one contact bridges you to several thousand others. Other services, such as Flickr [2], have sustained their popularity by innovating new ways to make meaning with their images though connections, annotation, and easy linking.

While Friendster and Flickr are examples of large-scale online communities, perhaps we are misguided in looking at them as icons of online community building. Meaningful online relationships are being built on smaller, lesser-known online communities. An example of this is Cyworld, a Korean language community that uses bulletin board, journals, photo albums, and personal information to take the personal homepage concept to a new level.

Cyworld [3] is owned by NATE [4], one of the biggest mobile networks in Korea, and has been popular for about 3 years. Cyworld receives occasional advertising on subways and in other media, but most of its success can be attributed to personal interaction within communities of young people. I recently talked with long-time Cyworld member Peter Kho [5] about what makes the community so successful.

Peter describes the initial attraction to Cyworld as, "an obsession people have with how many visitors they have, it's almost like a popularity contest, a star mentality." As a popularity platform, there is a privileged space on the first page featuring one boy and one girl. Being the chosen boy or girl is means heavy traffic, almost 1000 a day, an exciting quantity of recognition. "People almost thrive to be that person. If you're chosen then you get visited like crazy."

Communication and community building-or maintenance-is the primary use of Cyworld. "I use it to keep in touch with people that i wouldn't normally keep in touch with" Peter says. For example, he got in touch with an elementary schoolmate that he lost contact with, and now they are regular visitors to each other's sites. Some people find you and leave messages. "It's like a big meeting place, a big community."

There are many sections that can be browsed while visiting a friend's page. One is called "paper" where essays and commentaries can be posted. Popular topics include groups organized around interests and lifestyles such as wine aficionados, or snowboarders. Groups often write up papers, resembling a bulletin board, or reports on different issues. Another use is to set up face-to-face meetings at physical locations. There is some political commentary, but mostly people try to keep it light. Peter says, "the whole mood of Cyworld is pretty light. The concept is cute, lovey dovey, very Asian." Peter doesn't think the current tone would work well in Canada, noting,"if they want to bring it here, they would have to tweak it to the more 'serious' North American taste."

The site also hosts music which can be bought from a huge music shop. Korean, Western, classical, and jazz are all available. The service is supported by record labels and all the music can only be used on the Cyworld site. Personal music is not allowed, nor can it be uploaded. All music has be be bought through the music service provided by NATE.

Cyworld introduces an unique economic structure for users. It uses the "acorn" as its currency, worth about 100 Korean Yuan (CDN13¢), which are used to decorate your homepage with music, furniture, characters, and wallpaper. For example, it costs five acorns to purchase and use a song. Acorns can be given as gifts, or traded. Once you sign up they give you some for free, but you have to buy the majority. Acorns are purchased via credit card, which is bundled with online banking services. In Korea, the purchase of acorns can be included with your mobile phone bill.

Before Cyworld there was a similar service called Freechal [6], and others that are still around but not nearly as popular. "The thing about Cyworld, and this acorn idea, they really commercialized it without irritating anyone." You can use the whole service of Cyworld, but your page "just doesn't look as good." There is also branded merchandise, like diaries and other accessories that can be bought. Users can even get "Mini-Me's" based on the way they personalize their homepage.

Cyworld provides equal opportunity for chat and interaction, or chatter and voyeurism. Regardless, it touches upon a much more compelling human quality than mastery of a technological domain: Cyworld brings people together and amplifies the quality of their interaction on message boards, or by facilitating face-to-face meetings. Peter compares it to the Sophia Coppola movie staring Bill Murray as an aging and directionless celebrity: "It's like the tag line to Lost in Translation, 'eveyone wants to be found.' I think that's what is the underlying power of Cyworld's popularity; it really touched a nerve with the people that want to be found. I think that's why it is so popular."

Overall, the future looks bright for Cyworld. Cyworld membership is holding steady, and more users sign up every day. Among young people, "it is almost like having a cell phone. Once you are a certain age it is assumed you will have a Cyworld page." In fact, future development includes integration with cell phones, allowing you to check and update your site while mobile. The combination of services and technologies have struck a chord with Korean youth and created a compelling experience that keeps them coming back. While unknown in North America, Cyworld is an important contribution to the new models of online community.

References
[1] see Friendster at (http://www.friendster.com/)
[2] Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/)is an online community built around sharing and organizing photos
[3] begin your adventures with Cyworld at (http://cyworld.nate.com/)
[4] NATE's Korean page is (http://www.nate.com/)
[5] visit Peter Kho's Cyworld page at (http://cyworld.nate.com/peterkho/)
[6] Freechal can be found at (http://www.freechal.com/)

Dan Schick (daschick@sfu.ca) is a recent graduate from the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. His master's thesis argued for new methods for studying the uses and impacts of emerging technologies. Today, Dan works to apply these methods for research on new media communication technologies.