Earlier today, my friend Richard Yum posted a Tweet saying that Starcraft 2 sold 3 million copies last month and that he "bet like 90% of those were sold in Korea."
Its a smart bet for Richard if history is anything to go by. According to the infographic below, 50% of copies of the first Starcraft were sold to South Koreans, but that was ten-years ago. Since then, interest in the franchise has exploded:
I've never played Starcraft - how good is it?
-Parker
Again, possibly not the greatest or most accurate title for this blog post, but I've been on an alliterative kick this week. Emily, bless her Swiss heart, points us to a recent book about cell phone usage in Korea.
From the list of statistics she presents us with, two things surprised me.
1.) "Over 30% of Korean Students send over 100 text messages a day" - Where do they find the time?(and why can I only find results for the 2004 World Record for texting?)
2.) "97% of South Koreans buy ringtones" - Really? My phone doesn't play mp3 ringtones (unless you believe this) but I'm pretty sure that most phones capable of doing so also make it fairly easy to upload your own songs. What is the advantage of buying ringtones? Are South Koreans suckers? Or are their ringtone marketers just better than ours? I don't know a single person that has bought a ring tone for their phone. (Although once I spent $10 in data-fees downloading a picture of Maxim Magazine's Miss Russia wallpaper image for my phone...I'm still not sure if its a total waste or not).
Based on this and on my experience of living in Japan a few years ago, Asia is light years ahead of Canada when it comes to mobile phone technology. Rogers and Fido need to get their shit together.
Actually, as oligopolists, they don't really need to change much.
-Parker
