By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Public anger and concern over the resumption of U.S. beef imports has prompted an online power shift with the growing popularity of Web portal site Daum threatening the previously unbeatable Naver.

Daum's page views stood at 791.3 million in the first week of May, up 160.5 percent from a month earlier, surpassing Naver's 782 million, according to data from KoreanClick, an online research firm.

The gap widened at the end of the month, with Daum gaining 1.67 billion hits, over 304.5 million for Naver.

Coincidently, stocks of NHN, the owner of Naver, have fallen for four straight days at the start of the month while those of Daum are moving in the opposite direction for the third consecutive day.

Daum's share price stood at 66,000 won ($64.5), Friday, regaining the mid 60,000-won mark two months after plummeting to 57,100 won in a constant slump since hitting almost 90,000 won at the end of 2007.

NHN, on the same day, ended the day at 198,500 won, dropping below the psychologically important 200,000 won.

Even though Naver still leads in unique visits, Daum, the country's second biggest player, is in hopes of snatching the top position with its ``Agora,'' an online forum, becoming a surprising hit.

The reverse in page views took place after Seoul agreed to lift almost all restrictions on U.S. beef imports on April 18.

Messages from Internet users inundated the threads in Agora, causing the company to urgently upgrade its servers twice.

Launched in 2004, Agora has emerged as an online epicenter of public opinion against President Lee Myung-bak since he began campaigning to become President, producing numerous threads criticizing his policies such as the cross-country canal project.

It also started an online campaign for Lee's impeachment on April 6, with aims of getting 10 million signatures, it has so far secured approximately 1.4 million.

More recently, the site posted video clips and pictures of police using water cannons as well as injured demonstrators at the ongoing candlelit demonstrations, with thousands of Web surfers posting messages criticizing the police and President Lee.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr