Cyworld

Cyworld is a pioneering South Korean social network service that originally launched in 1999. It was conceptualized in 1995 as a graduation project by students at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) who aimed to create a service focused on relationships, reflected in the name "Cy," a pun on the Korean word for relationship. The company was officially founded in September 1999 by individuals including Dong-Hyung Lee, who served as CEO until 2008.

The platform's core offering was the "minihompy," a personal homepage that users could customize. This virtual space allowed for self-expression through features like a diary, photo albums, bulletin boards, and a decorated virtual room called a "mini-room" with a personal avatar, or "minime." Users formed connections called "Ilchon" (friendships) to interact with each other's minihompies. At its zenith, Cyworld was a cultural phenomenon in South Korea, with claims in 2005 that nearly every person in their twenties was a user, and by 2011, it had amassed over 25 million members. Its primary revenue stream was the sale of "dotori," or acorns, a virtual currency used to purchase digital items like background music, avatar clothing, and mini-room furniture. This model was highly successful, with dotori sales generating a significant portion of the company's profits.

In August 2003, SK Communications acquired Cyworld, which facilitated its rapid growth by integrating it with NateOn, a popular instant messenger service. The company attempted to expand internationally, launching services in the U.S., Europe, China, and Vietnam, but faced stiff competition from emerging platforms like Facebook and failed to gain significant traction in Western markets. A critical blow came in 2011 with a major data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of users, accelerating its decline. Compounded by a slow adaptation to the mobile era, Cyworld's user base dwindled. SK Communications spun off Cyworld as an independent company in 2014. After a series of ownership changes and service shutdowns, Cyworld Z, a consortium, acquired the platform in 2021 with plans to relaunch it as a metaverse platform, recovering billions of user photos and videos. The latest revival attempt is by Cy Communications, which took over in 2024 with plans for a 2025 relaunch, aiming to restore user data and potentially integrate light gaming features.

Keywords: social network, minihompy, virtual currency, dotori, avatar, mini-room, Ilchon, Korean social media, SK Communications, virtual goods, social networking service, digital items, NateOn, Cyworld Z, metaverse platform, online community, user-generated content, virtual world, digital identity, social graph, Korean pop culture