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Apr 07, 2005

Korea: Synthetic Currency Now Sold in Stores

In Cyworld, you can set up avatars who interact with your visitors. If you want better avatars, you need to pay for them with acorns ('dotori'). Acorns are available from the company, for the equivalent of 10 cents US each.  You can buy them with your cell phone and give them as gifts.

Of course, with such small unit prices, acorns are only a $200,000 business.  Every day.

And now, in the mirror image of /pizza, you can buy dotori in stores.

Here's a translation, by Indiana University PhD Student Seungwhan Lee, of part of an article in Chosunilbo, Korea's largest newspaper:

Bang, S. H. (2005, March 15). Cyworld began to sell “Acorns” gift cards in stores. Chosunilbo, B4.

"Cyworld began to sell “Dotori” (Acorns) gift cards in stores

SK Communications which owns Cyworld <the largest community site in Korea> announced that gift cards for Dotori (acorns) are selling in stores on March 14.

Dotori is e-money that is used to purchase avatars and background music to decorate personal multimedia homepages in Cyworld <cyworld.com>. One Dotori is equivalent to 10 cents and $200,000 is sold every day so far via cell phone, credit card and e-banking purchases.

There are three types gift cards: 3, 000 Won <Korean currency> (or 30 Dotories) <equivalent of $3>, 5,000 Won, and 10,000 Won... Beginning of March 14, Dotori gift cards are sold nationwide in 3,500 bookstores and 8,000 stationery stores."

* < > means my explanation.

on Apr 07, 2005 in News |

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Comments

1.

Hi everybody, my first post on TN!

Habbo Hotel is also selling their currency in a very similar way in stores in Finland. For five Euros you get 30 Habbo Coins. The coins can be used to purchase virtual goods and to take part games and activities inside the hotel. HH is actually one of the case studies in my humble master's thesis, in which I look into different approaches taken by virtual world operators towards real-money virtual asset trade (it's due finished in July and I'll probably work it into article form soon after, in case someone's interested).

Cheers,
Vili

Posted by: Vili Lehdonvirta | Apr 07, 2005 at 13:37

2.

Vili, welcome! I didn't know Habbo had already made the step. Wow.

Posted by: Edward Castronova | Apr 07, 2005 at 14:26

3.

Although they aren't sold in stores, per se, Therebucks (for the virtual world There) can be purchased directly at There.com using a credit card for 1800T per dollar (you need to be a member though). There has been discussion in the past about offering gift cards with Therebucks value, but it hasn't happened yet. At any rate, that currency also has real value as in the above case.

Posted by: Espen | Apr 08, 2005 at 10:29

4.

The amazing thing about Cyworld is that it has become more than a "blog" - not unlike widespread popularity of Starcraft that transcends traditional "gamer" realm - it has become the calling card for many people both old and young.

Here is another way Cyworld is making money - companies can create items/skins that promote its brand or products (i.e. a bottle of Coke versus a Pepsi), and to have it available for the Cy-people everywhere to download or buy, the companies pay a 5-6 figure royalty to Cyworld.

Welcome to the wonderful world of online-placement advertising.

Also imagine companies paying Valve, Maxis (of the popular Sims games) or other gaming companies money to have real-world objects that feature their own brands...

Posted by: Jae Barclay | Apr 27, 2005 at 15:52

7.

Great info. It's coming to the US late August so I'm tryin to learn as much as I can. Do you have any other articles about Cyworld? I found this one through a search on Google for "Cyworld".

Posted by: Armando Filoteo | Aug 03, 2006 at 13:13

8.

Someone else below asked this already.
I am getting nailed with Spam in my guestbook for our catalog website. Is there anyway to stop this? If not, there really isn't any point in leaving it up and active. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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