'March Revival' Cyworld CEO "Confident in Monetization with Mobile Version"

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] The nostalgic social networking service (SNS) ‘Cyworld’ has announced its revival in March.

The newly established corporation ‘CyworldZ’ paid 1 billion KRW for unpaid wages and other settlements and acquired the service operation rights from Jeon Je-wan, the CEO of Cyworld. Cyworld faced an existential crisis due to conflicts between the former CEO and employees over unpaid wages. CyworldZ is a corporation formed by a consortium of five companies, including the entertainment company Sky E&M.

On the 3rd, Oh Jong-won, CEO of CyworldZ, said in a phone interview with Asia Economy, "We are currently working on restoring the servers," adding, "After a testing period to prepare for situations such as traffic surges, we will resume the service in the first week of March." Oh explained that once the service resumes, users will be able to use Cyworld just as it was before.

Founded in 1999, Cyworld gained tremendous popularity in the early 2000s, boasting 32 million members, 17 billion photos, and 150 million videos. However, the ‘Dotori’ (acorns), which were used like currency within Cyworld, are expected to appear in a different form. CyworldZ has announced plans to list a cryptocurrency.

Oh said, "The former CEO’s unpaid wage issues caused employees to leave and maintenance to be neglected, which led to the servers being in a terrible state," adding, "We have secured not only financial resources but also competitive experts, and have spent about two months preparing and deliberating." He also added, "The former CEO will assist as a technical advisor."

Cyworld plans to resume the existing PC version service normally and introduce a ‘Mobile 3.0 version’ in June. The mobile version development involves about 30 outsourced developers. Additionally, about 40 internal staff members are dedicated to developing the Cyworld service, Oh explained.

He especially expects the mobile version to create a revenue model for Cyworld. He said, "The reason Cyworld had to shut down was that the labor costs and revenue did not match while developing the mobile version," adding, "The new corporation has separately secured funds for mobile version development."

He continued, "There are 530 million music tracks in the Cyworld database alone, and even if calculated at 800 KRW per track, an enormous economy operates within this," emphasizing, "Once the mobile version is released, profitability will be sufficient."

However, the situation has changed significantly from the past. Upon resuming service, Cyworld will have to compete with global companies such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Regarding this, Oh said, "There are still many people who remember Cyworld, with up to 10 million members joining just before the service was suspended," and predicted, "It will be a market share battle worth engaging in."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.