New breed of on-line traders beats recession
New breed of on-line traders beats recession
By Ahn Mi-young
SEOUL (DPA): When Kim Ki-Moon, 35, lost his job as a computer programmer in a construction company to the South Korean economic crisis, he began a frantic search for work.
Twenty months later, still without formal employment, he is much more relaxed and rarely thinks about his old 2.5 million won a month (US$2,100) position.
In the past year he has become a "cyber trader", dabbling in financial markets via the Internet from his home in southern Seoul.
"At first, I lost more money than I earned. Now I am learning to read the market," he said.
On a typical day recently, he bought some electronics shares after hearing of a firm's robust memory chip sales, then off- loaded stocks of another venture company which he had bought a few days earlier.
Although he won't say how much he earns, Kim said he has had "a few lucky months" in which he made much more than he did in his old job. He now has a lot more leisure time to spend with his wife and four-year-old son.
Cyber traders
Kim is part of a new wave of day-traders in South Korea, the country which, according to industry experts, has the world's largest per-capita number of online stock traders.
Almost 1.2 million cyber traders are trying to make a fast buck online, and together they account for almost one-third of total daily stock transactions on the Seoul Stock Exchange.
The president of the online TNT Club for cyber traders, Cho Kyu- Man, 33, said: "For many unemployed, cyber-trading has become a good out-of-work source of income, if they are lucky and smart enough."
Some young people are now leaving their secure company jobs to enter the lucrative fray of the information age and become full- time Internet day-traders.
Many of them prefer the freedom this lifestyle offers to being locked into stressful corporate life.
The online revolution has spilled over into the realm of Cyber cafes and Internet-PC game rooms, a mushrooming industry in the technology-savvy East Asian country.
Within the past year, their number has grown from 3,000 Internet PC rooms to more than 13,000 nationwide.
At a cost of only 5,000 won ($4.20) for a two- or three-hour stay, these businesses offer fast connections and sophisticated software that is constantly updated.
An analyst of the Internet Multi-Culture Association said, "The Internet PC room is a typically Korean success model that creates some 4 trillion won of market value annually."
Only a year ago, it was mostly students playing video games who populated the PC rooms.
Now, young company employees-turned-online-traders, aged in their 20s or 30s, are often seen sitting alongside the teenagers, browsing through animation sites or chatting by e-mail.
Sensing the potential of these unique new Cyber cafes -- which are outfitted for both serious work and play -- a group of PC room businesses have teamed up with 10 local brokerage houses backing them.
Playing it different
They are "different from other nations' Internet cafes," said Hur Hyun-June, the marketing leader of Chung-oh Communications Co, a franchise owner of some 80 PC game rooms nationwide.
"These rooms are operated not only for individual fun, but also for online business use on high-speed connection networks such as ADSL or cable TV transmission."
Growth has been so frantic that these Internet rooms are now the major customers for these high-speed connections from the nation's largest telephony giant, Korea Telecom and the local call start-up Hanaro Telecom.
The two telecom companies are now busy installing more ADSL lines with new equipment from Alcatel of France.
Chung-oh Communications now hopes to export its new success model across the Sea of Japan.
The company is finalizing talks for a 2:1 joint venture for PC rooms with one of Japan's top five game development and distribution companies.
"Something that hits off in Korean usually hits off in Japan, and vice versa," said Hur. "That is why we are going to launch the PC rooms in Japan."