US Cyworld closes down.
So, as it would seem, Cyworld is pulling out of the US market. Cyworld is a huge Korean blogging site here with almost every Korean person I know (under the age of 40 that is) having their own personal Cyworld site. For us foreigners to get a Cyworld site here in Korea is near impossible. Not only does everybody have to register when they sign up, but having a foreigners ID number makes the process infinitely more difficult, as is the case with just about every other Korean website.
I actually did open up a US Cyworld account many years ago, but haven’t touched it in roughly the same length of time. It was amusing to have, but the novelty quickly wore off.
The other day I received this in my email inbox;
From: globalcy@cyworld.com [mailto:globalcy@cyworld.com]
Sent: Friday, 6 November 2009 10:50 AM
To:
Subject: Cyworld shuts down US cyworld service
Thank you to all members with Cyworld
Due to Cyworld shuts down US service, US Cyworld will no longer be able to service.
We sincerely apologize for shutting down the service with unavoidable reason.
Before US cyworld close the service, you will continue to access to US cyworld contents but not
purchase items. Also, you will not use your acorns.
If you have unused acorns, you will be given a full refund for paid acorns only.
Refunds and data backup service is in progress, using the acorn will no longer be able to purchase for miniroom items, skins, etc.
@ Schedule for closing US Cyworld service
Due to Data Back-up and closing service issues, the service will be unavailable.
* Shop service will be unavailable since Nov 03, 2009
o Club service, Profile photo/data upload serivce will be unavailable since Nov 23, 2009
Adios US Cyworld. There’s no reason as to why the site is closing, no doubt because because it’s losing money (would there likely be any other reason?). I’m not sure if the same organisation runs both the US and Korean servers, but if not they could also be copyright infringements.
I’m not sure how many people use the US Cyworld, but I imagine a high number of Korean ex-pats would likely make up the highest majority. Still, with the huge increase in popularity with facebook and myspace, there are plenty of alternative sites those users can now turn to.
10/11/2009 - Tuesday 9:41 am 2 Comments
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By Paul / samedi, 11/11/2009 - Wednesday @ 11:43 pm
I signed up for a US CyWorld account back in 2005 or 2006 in the hope that one day there would be portability between that and the Korean version. Certainly seemed a lot easier than trying to register for a Korean CyWorld account while outside of the ROK!
There was a walk-through on the Soompi forums a while back on how to make a Korean CyWorld account, but when I tried accessing it just now I was hit by a whole string of virus warnings. Guess that’s no longer an option?
By David, 13/11/2009 - Friday @ 11:56 am
Paul: I think Cyworld is great for people that simply want a presence on the web. It’s easy and well laid out. For us who require something a little more detailed, Cyworld will never cut the mustard.