SEOUL, KOREA — Online and mobile communications technologies matured and pervaded in 2011, sparked revolutions, and gone were dictators who had held on for decades, as well as an indiscreet American politician named Wiener.
The ongoing smart convergence that's leading the world into a new era of inter-connectedness has empowered ordinary citizens into organized civil disobedience — borderless groups such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous keep the good guys in check too.
Massive waves of civil protests easily organized within a few clicks — in the backdrop of ongoing global economic crises — will continue to define the year ahead. Presented are some of the most notable people and stories of 2011 both in Korea and in the world — that will shape the year of the Black Dragon, harbinger of sweeping change.
Korean cyber-security loopholes exposed
In 2011, a series of attacks compromised South Korea’s cyber-security. Major government agencies as well as corporations suffered DOS (Denial-of-Service) attacks and were hacked into, including the Central Election Management Committee, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, Hyundai Capital, SK Communications, and game-developer Nexon.
Security breaches took place in serial fashion, and security vulnerabilities across all sectors in Korea were vividly exposed. The Korean government began to crack down on the leaks when they reached a momentous level, by enacting the Act on Personal Information Protection – the SK Communication case had leaked personal information of 35 million people, which is more than half of the national population.
The issue is particularly sensitive because a Korean law enacted in 2007 requires web sites to collect citizen identification numbers in order to prevent fraud and abuse of anonymity. The policy has been under review by the Korea Communications Commission, which announced on December 30 that the law will be phased out by 2014.
Earthquake in Japan triggers the biggest nuclear accident since Chernobyl
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake broke out at waters east off Miyagi Prefecture of Dohoku in Japan at 2:46PM on March 11. The earthquake was the fourth most powerful in recorded history.
A 10-meter high tsunami triggered by the earthquake hit the coastal area of Dohoku causing 15,800 deaths and 3,400 missing people. The tsunami suspended power supplies to six reactors in Fukushima Power Plant. A hydrogen explosion followed. The cores of the reactors began to melt down, causing radioactive materials to leak out of the power plant buildings.
The Japanese government announced that the incident of the nuclear power plant belonged to level 4 -- a minor incident -- then later revised it as a Level 7 incident equal to that of the Chernobyl power plant disaster. The incident devastated Fukushima, a coastal town, and fueled a worldwide debate on the construction and operation of nuclear power plants.
European nations, especially Germany, decided to reconsider their policies on nuclear power plants and halt their operation. When it was discovered that the incident in Japan was a man-made disaster which could have been averted, the myth of Japan’s technological prowess was destroyed.
Social Networking Services empower democratization movements across the Middle East
Social Networking Services (SNS) displayed its powerful influence as a tool for protestors, enough so that the democratization movements in the Middle East have been dubbed the “SNS revolution.
” The Jasmine revolution put an end to the 24-year-long rule of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia and was evaluated as victory for citizens and SNS. 27% of Tunisia’s population is young – from 15 to 29 years old; and the number of Facebook users in Tunisia was at 2 million.
The Tunisians spread revolution news through Twitter and Facebook against the strict censorship of the Tunisian government and systemized their protests.
Finally, Tunisian President Ben Ali stepped down on January 15 and took a political exile in Saudi Arabia. The Jasmine revolution became the main driving force that propelled the revolution which followed in Egypt. The power of SNS took the iron-fisted rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. News on the Occupied Wall Street movement traveled through SNS as well. "We are standing at a crosswalk of latest technology and social issues," commented CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg.
Patent war between Apple and Samsung
One of the hot potatoes of the IT industry in 2011 was Apple’s patent war to check the growing competitors of the iPhone and iPad.
Apple launched major legal offensives: filing lawsuits against the Android group such as Samsung Electronics and HTC, and applying for injunctions on sales of products of its competitors around the world in Australia, Germany and the U.S. Counteractions took place in some regions.
The lawsuits were expected to stop abruptly for a while, but they continued on, keeping courts and regulators busy. Courts took a great deal of trouble over the cases by allocating prosecutors and judges well -versed in technology.
People are keeping an eye on whether or not verdicts of courts or decisions of regulators will satisfy Apple and the Android group.
The euro zone crisis
A financial crisis broke out in Greece at the end of 2009 and spread to major economies in the euro zone. Until the beginning of last year, it was expected that the crisis from Greece would have a negative impact on small economies in Europe only thanks to a clear recovery of the world economy.
But it lasted longer than expected, making people anxious about a possibility of defaults in bigger economies such as Italy and Spain beginning in May.
The ratios of national debt to the gross domestic product of Euro zone countries already surpass 100%. The economy of the Euro zone entered a slump in three years after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008 as the financial crisis led to an economic crisis and a reduction in government spending.
The slump was attributable to the budget deficit of the Euro zone, as it deteriorated as money was spent on preventing the financial crisis in 2009 and lax financial management. Heads of states in Europe agreed to put more funds into Greece and toughen financial regulations. The financial crisis in Europe became one of the worst factors against the world economy along with a slowdown in the growth of the U.S. economy, a fall in the credit rating of the U.S. and anxiety over a double dip in the U.S. economy and a policy of retrenchment by China.
Ratification of the Korea-U.S. FTA
The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was ratified by the Korean National Assembly after many twists and turns, as the opposition parties strongly resisted its passage.
The Grand National Party convened a surprise plenary session in the afternoon of November 22 and came to a vote in spite of the strong obstruction by lawmakers of opposition parties.
Lawmaker Kim Seon-dong set off a tear gas shell below the seat of the speaker in protest of the railroaded ratification of the agreement, turning the National Assembly into a pandemonium, a new low in the history of the Korean parliament.
With the ratification of the Korea-U.S. FTA, the Korean economy secured a foothold to take off once again due to the breaking down of the trade barriers of the two countries. The Korean government-run research institutes project that Korea will expand its exports by USD 1.3B and its trade surplus by USD 140M on the strength of the Korea-U.S. FTA over the next 15 years. But still remaining as a task is renegotiation with the U.S. including the abolishment, suspension and revision of the ISD, the biggest issue which delayed the ratification.
SK Group acquires Hynix Semiconductor
“We will make a global history of success together with Hynix,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman & CEO of Korea’s SK Group who could not hide his high expectations after acquiring Hynix.
For the time being, the SK Group has many times knocked the doors of the global markets in efforts to shed their image as a Korean domestic enterprise, but often had to face disappointing results.
For SK, which has failed in achieving productive outcomes in markets outside the country, Hynix’s technology with its second-largest market share in the global memory semiconductor sector as well as their global network in some 15 countries worldwide including the U.S., Europe and China, are expected to give a great boost to SK Telecom’s overseas expansions in their various wireless internet platform businesses in and outside the country based ICT convergence. Hynix is expected to act as a bridgehead for SK’s global entrance as well as for other affiliates of the group.
Korea’s trade volume surpasses USD 1 trillion
On December 5, Korea’s trade volume surpassed USD 1 trillion. Even though Korea began from almost nothing after the Japanese colonial yoke and civil war, Korea entered an era of USD 500B in exports and USD 1T in trade volume in 50 years after the nation began its five-year economic development plan in January 1962.
In 1945 when Korea was liberated from Japan, industrial activities in Korea hit a snag after Japanese capital and technology were withdrawn from Korea.
As if to add oil to the fire, the Korean War broke out, making Korea one of the poorest countries in the world that had to rely on foreign aid with little hope.
50 years later, on December 5 of 2011, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced that Korea’s annual trade volume surpassed USD1 trillion. Countries that have surpassed USD 1 trillion in trade before Korea are the U.S., China, Germany, Japan, France, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Italy. The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) held a ceremony to designate a section near the Trade Center on Grand Yeongdong Roadas “Grand Trade Road” on December 7 of 2011.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) begins
The number of LTE service users is on a sharp rise with LTE commercialization by leading wireless telecommunication carriers in the world. LTE is a standard for high-speed data transfer for mobile phones and data terminals.
According to a December 4 report released by Signals and System Telecom, a market research organization, the number of LTE subscribers in the world has surpassed six million. U.S. LTE subscribers accounted for 70% of the total.
Korea is also taking the lead in the LTE boom as the number of its LTE users surpassed one million. It is expected that the U.S. and Asian markets will lead the LTE business. “An increase in investment in the U.S. and Asian markets will lead the way in the growth of the LTE market,” said Idate, a market research company.
“China and India will introduce LTE sooner or later.” With an increase in the number of LTE subscribers, more users use more video and multimedia content. According to an analysis of LTE use of 500,000 LTE smartphone users of LG U+, the most popular content was “U+ HDTV” which was followed by Naver, Android Market, Daum, Google and YouTube. It is forecast that the competition among the three Korean wireless telecommunication carriers will become even fiercer to preoccupy the LTE market.
The cursed year for notorious figures
The year 2011 was a cursed year for militant dictators and leaders, with the death of Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Jong-il.
The wealthy member of the Saudi Bin Laden family and the most wanted terrorist in the U.S., Osama Bin laden was killed on May 2 through a covert operation named “Operation Neptune Spear” under the administration of the United States President Barak Obama with the cooperation of U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Navy seals. Five months later on October 20,, the notorious leader of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Muammar Gaddafi was killed and shot by the rebel Senad el-Sadik el-Ureybi of the Libyan revolutionary forces.
Following Gaddafi’s death, the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-il suddenly died of a suspected heart attack on December 17, while he was traveling by train outside of Pyongyang. The death of these three notorious figures came as a surprise for the world in 2011, and has affected the world economy in various ways.
The man behind the curtains at Samsung
In the midst of Apple’s iPhone 4 boom that had started since its release in April, Samsung recorded sales of 10 million units within 5 months of its debut of Galaxy S2. Samsung’s successful sales are mostly credited to the president of Samsung’s mobile communication division, Shin Jong-kyun.
Shin Jong-kyun is Samsung’s most aggressive promoter, who started building its smart phone portfolio that had started in 2010 with the introduction of the original Galaxy S smart phone. With an ambitious smartphone agenda to double its market share, Shin Jong-kyun set out his business strategy for the year 2011.
By forming strong partnerships with the most popular mobile carriers around the world and working closely with multiple operating systems such as Google Android platform and Microsoft’s Windows Phone software, Shin Jong-kyun recorded the best sales records in Samsung’s history.
In the first quarter of 2011, 18 percent of its shipments were smart phones, an increase of 4 percent from that of the previous year quarter; in the second quarter, Samsung surpassed one of the biggest smart phone companies, Nokia and became the No. 2 global smart phone company; by the third quarter, Samsung claimed the top spot in the smart phone market by surpassing Apple’s 17.1 million iPhone shipments with 27.8 million Galaxy S2 shipments. Shin will continue to actively promote Samsung, not only as a smart phone company, but also as a tablet company in the upcoming year 2012.
What’s next for the Korean KaKaoTalk
Launched in March 18th 2010, KaKaoTalk is now South Korea’s biggest smart phone app with the founder Lee Jae-bum’s vision to provide free messaging.
Having graduated from Seoul National University with a degree of Industrial Engineering, Lee Jae-bum sought investments from Kim Bum Soo, a SNU alum who had founded a leading online game company, Hangame.
Now with an estimate of 20 million users at the end of the year and approximately 1M users overseas, KaKaotalk is actively building its new business strategy to increase its revenue. Lee Jae-bum, with other ventures, is planning to launch a more lucrative business model by running an ad-based platform. He is even planning to launch KaKaoTalk in the US in 2012.
Independent businessman grabs spotlight amid extreme partisan politics in S. Korea
Most notably known for his anti-virus software firm AhnLab Co., Ahn Chul-soo took the spotlight when he announced that he would run for the position of Seoul mayor.
Even though he dropped out during the October election, many people have since then have speculated that Ahn will continue his stance in politics, and go for a bigger chair.
Ahn has shown his political engagement by explicitly speaking out against President Lee Myung-bak’s administration for heavily supporting big corporations. Unsettled politicians have questioned Ahn on whether he will run for president for 2012, but he has remained evasive, only to make the matter even more questionable.
As Ahn has donated half of his AhnLab stock valued at KRW 150B, to children’s educational opportunities, many fairly young citizens from age 20-40 are favoring him for his clean image. We will be watching Ahn’s next forays into the political arena in the year ahead.
Death of innovator and visionary Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple died on October 5 after his long battle with cancer at the age 56. Jobs founded Apple.
He has been called an “innovation genius” from the digital revolution to smart revolution, the “Leonardo Da Vinci of the 21st century” and a “revolutionist in the IT industry.” Born as an illegitimate child and later adopted by a poor family, Jobs has traveled wide and known misery as well as greatness.
Jobs rose as a hero through his strong enterprising spirit and innovation. In 1976 Jobs was kicked out from the company that he founded.
After experiencing some twists and turns, Jobs returned to Apple as an interim CEO in 1997. A wave of mourning swept the world as Jobs died after taking the lead in the IT industry with the personal computer, the iPod and the iPad. The autobiography of Jobs written by Walter Isacson, a former Time magazine editor, rose to the top of best-seller lists as soon as it was published.
The decline of Sony and Nokia
The new competitive market for 3D TV has been a harsh downfall for Sony, one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products. During the first quarter of 2011, Sony remained as the top leading firm for the 3D TV market. However, in the second quarter, Samsung surpassed Sony by selling 13 million while Sony only produced 7 million units.
Even though LG had only sold 1 million units during the fourth quarter in 2010 while Sony had produced 7.8 million units, LG surpassed Sony in the third quarter of 2011 with its new record sales of 8 million units and 7.5 million units for Sony. LG is expected to sell 10 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. Now ranked as the third in the 3D TV market, Sony is still unstable. With increasing sales of Chinese firms such as Hisense and Skyworth, Sony is doing its best to compete with them. There is even speculation that Apple will merge with Sony, as Sony is suffering a downfall.
A similar rhyme can be composed for the Finnish mobile firm, Nokia. Even though Nokia has launched its new phone, Lumina 800 with Windows mobile on October 26, its shares have fallen over 20 percent. In the second quarter of 2011, Nokia’s market share was 32.5 percent, but during the third quarter, its market share halved to 15.3 percent. Nokia currently holds only 2 percent of the market share in the smart phone industry.
The first female CEO appointed at IBM
On October 25, the IBM board of directors decided to appoint Virginia M. Rometty as the president and chief executive officer of the company, which will be effective from January 1, 2012. A graduate of Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering, Ms. Rometty first joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1981.
She has successfully led several of IBM's most important businesses over the past decade—from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of its Growth Markets Unit. Ms. Rometty said at a press conference in IBM’s headquarters in NY, “There is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM, especially at this moment. Sam [former CEO] had the courage to transform the company based on his belief that computing technology, our industry, even world economies would shift in historic ways. All of that has come to pass.”
Chung Mong-ku sets a new milestone in politics of donations in Korea
Chung Mong-ku, chairman of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, has set a new milestone in the politics of donations in S. Korea by contributing KRW 500B, the biggest contribution by a Korean individual in 2011 by far. On December 4, Hyundai Motor announced a comprehensive program to support 84,000 marginalized people for five years from 2012.
The program includes donating tuition fees, offering specialized education programs and support for young people who start their own businesses. The program includes step-by-step measures to help students at all levels of education as well as promising young entrepreneurs. Hyundai Motor plans to support 13,000 college students from low-income families by donating tuition fees.
The foundation Haebichi Foundation behind the programs was also renamed as Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-ku Foundation, with coffer of KRW 650B.
Death of Park Tae-jun, 'Iron Man of Korea'
Park Tae-jin, “Iron Man” of Korea and honorary chairman of POSCO, died at the age of 84. The late Park devoted himself to the birth and growth of POSCO which laid the foundation for Korea’s economic development. Park was born in Yangsan of South Gyeongsang province in 1927 and majored in engineering at Waseda University in Japan. Park began his career in the steel industry at the request of the then President Park Chung-hee in 1967.
But the construction of a steel mill came to a deadlock due to a financial problem. Finally, the Korean government received money from Japan through a claim on compensation due by Japan for its colonial rule. On April 1, 1970, Park held a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the first steel mill unit for POSCO. While harnessing his unique leadership, Park expanded POSCO to more than double the size of Carnegie’s company faster than the U.S. steel king.
“It is difficult for China to nurture its steel industry as China does not have someone like Park Tae-jun,” said the president of Nippon Steel Co. when he was asked to help China build a steel mill like POSCO when Deng Xiaoping met him. At that time, “I will import Park Tae-jun,” Deng said. Under his motto, “My life for my country,” Park did not own one single share of POSCO when he served as an honorary chairman of POSCO. Park donated his residence amounting to about KRW 1B in Seoul to the Beautiful Foundation.
All eyes on North Korea
On December 19, North Korea announced that its supreme leader Kim Jong-il died of myocardial infection in a running night train. The announcement stated that Kim had been overworking day and night. Kim took office as chairman of the National Defense Committee while advocating the slogan, “Strong Nation” in 1998. In addition, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of former North Korean leader and father to Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung.
The world is closely watching the moves of the new North Korean government. People are keeping an eye on what economic policies Kim Jong-un, vice chairman of the Central Military Committee of the Labor Party in North Korea will adopt in order to revive the North Korean economy. Noting that Kim Jong-un was educated in Switzerland from 1998 to 2000, some experts say that North Korea will push for reform like China.
But other experts predict that it will be difficult for North Korea to push for reform and openness in a short period as the country has closed itself from the outside world for a long time. It is also predicted that it will be not easy for the immature 29-year-old leader to start a drastic reform in the short term as Kim Jong-il was unable to overcome the North Korean military even though he had a strong will for reform and openness. Some people say that China will be the biggest beneficiary even if North Korea takes a road to reform and openness at a time when the relationship between the two Korea is still sour.
The golden boy or the devil’s double
After the demise of his father Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un has been under an enormous spotlight worldwide. The world is more curious and nervous than ever, as he became the newly appointed dictator of North Korea. Having been educated in International school of Berne in Berne, Switzerland, Kim Jong-un grew up playing basketball and especially video games with his classmates.
After returning to North Korea, he attended Kim Il-sung University, where only high class profile students may attend. There, he focused on computer science, learning how to track locations using GPS tracking system and even hacking into computer network systems.
Kim Jong-un is supposedly speculated to have been the man behind the scenes for the attack of Young Pyong-do, using the skills he learned from GPS. However, the principal of Kim Jong-un’s former middle school in Switzerland hopes that he will apply his liberal education to reform North Korea in a new and positive direction.
