Telecommunications rivals KT and SK Telecom are now “tweeting” it out on the Internet. / Korea Times |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The KT-SK Telecom rivalry probably represents the fiercest feud in the South Korean business sector ― one of them makes a move and the other goes hell-bent on proving it can do better.
And now the competition between the two telecommunications giants has reached Twitter (www.twitter.com), the latest global Internet craze, which the companies believe could prove a powerful marketing platform.
KT, the country's largest telephony company and runner-up mobile operator, recently opened a Twitter account (twitter.com/ollehkt) and now has around 900 ``followers,'' listed to receive the company's ``tweets'' (postings).
SK Telecom, the mobile telephony king, had already opened a Twitter page (twitter.com/sktelecom―blog) in May, an interesting decision considering that the company operates competing micro-blogging service, Tossi (www.tossi.com).
Although subscribing to Twitter two months earlier than its rival, SK Telecom trails slightly with around 800 followers. KT was able to generate a significant buzz over a shorter period of time, as it is expected to be the first among the two mobile carriers to release iPhone, Apple's iconic do-it-all smart phone that local tech geeks have been awaiting for years.
The KT Twitter page is currently flooding with questions about the upcoming iPhone release, although the company clearly prefers not to be too specific.
SK Telecom said much of its followers are high-tech industry professionals and also students and ``early adopters,'' or trend-setting consumers.
``We believe that Twitter will allow us to better communicate with our customers and gain new ideas in developing our products,'' said a KT spokesman.
Twitter, which now has over 20 million users globally, allows subscribers to broadcast their real-time status to whoever is interested in computers and mobile devices.
The popularity of Twitter has been reaching Korean shores lately, with figure skating starlet Kim Yu-na being the most famous user. Local Internet company NHN, which operates top Web portal, Naver (www.naver.com), has been pushing a similar micro-blogging service called me2Day (me2day.net), while SK Telecom is trying to gain traction for Tossi, which is provided on the mobile phones of its subscribers.
The ferocious rivalry between KT and SK Telecom had both companies spending obscene amounts of money on an advertising war in offline media. It remains to be seen how much of the battles in print and on television can be replaced by e-mails, instant messaging, social networking services and other online communication tools.
But there is no question that Twitter and other online platforms are adding a new, interactive dimension to how the companies reach their audience, and gain a clear understanding of them and serve their needs.
The popularity of Twitter and other ``broadcast texting'' services may have a profound influence on consumer behavior and change the way people gain information from the Internet, which could see them competing with traditional search engines such as Google, industry experts say.
``Companies have been racing to set up corporate blogs, many of them in social networking formats to connect with consumers on a more personal level, as they begin to rely less on traditional media,'' said an Internet industry official.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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