hankyoreh

The Fair Trade Commission is going to begin studying whether the country’s Internet portal companies are abusing their dominant position in the market early next month. The market watchdog has gone as far as to create a dedicated team to investigate whether the portals are violating fair trade laws.

This is an urgently needed and important investigation. The commission’s decision to look into the matter actually feels a little late in coming. It has been three or four years now since there have been accusations that portals are abusing their power. It is content providers who suffer the most. When mid-sized companies come up with interesting and original content, they are immediately approached by the portal sites with offers to supply portal content, but the open secret is that they are forced to accept terribly disadvantageous conditions in terms of earnings. If a company rejects such an offer, the portal immediately begins offering the same types of services or content and the startup company is left with nothing. The structure of the market for content right now is such that no matter the quality of your content, you are going to belong to the portals. Kim Yu-sik, president of the "Korea Internet Contents Association," said last year when the organization was inaugurated that its members had gathered "to find a way to survive." Kim also happens to be the president of "DC Inside," a very popular Web site focused on digital photography, so just think about how serious the situation must be for smaller sites.

The growth of Korea’s information technology (IT) industry was powered by the many venture companies and startups that were built on the Internet and communication. That’s because the Internet was the land of opportunity for those who wanted to write new legends regarding business success. But the power wielded the portal companies has made new ideas and cultural diversity disappear from the Internet and prevents new companies from emerging. The "ecosystem" of the Internet thus stands to lose its vitality.

Between them, Naver, Daum, and Yahoo already hold 80 percent of the Internet search market. Naver alone has 70 percent. These are no longer new Internet startups, they are "dinosaurs" with absolute power. In the "offline" world, there are devices in place to protect medium-sized companies from Korea’s large conglomerates and from big business in general. Online, however, smaller companies are left completely exposed. Power that is left unchecked always ends up suppressing the weak. Now that the Fair Trade Commission has unsheathed its sword, we hope that it will be thorough and that the investigation will not end in a grand anticlimax. Even more important will be creating structural devices that keep the portals in check, and that the investigation does not end as a one-time thing. A proactive role on the part of the government is needed at this time, for the sake of the continued development of the Internet industry.


Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]