By Cho Mu-hyun
SK Communications, the social network service (SNS) affiliate of SK Group, is planning a comprehensive refashioning of its ailing service Cyworld, industry officials said Friday.
The upgrades will be unveiled sometime in June or July.
Cyworld once dominated the local SNS market but has now been marginalized by rivals such as Facebook and Twitter on desktops.
The planned upgrades include enlarging its homepage to a full screen that currently takes up only two thirds, in response to complaints that though “cute” its current state is uncomfortable.
A new app that allows members to view all the photos uploaded on their homepages in their smartphones is also planned.
Market watchers believe that SK is aiming to draw back its subscribers to its SNS given that most of them still visit the site for their pictures, some with nearly 10 years worth.
A new interaction service exclusively for mobile devices is also under development. It will be similar to Kakao’s Kakao Story and NHN’s Band, said industry sources.
In the mobile platform, which SK entered belatedly, it is losing out to its two rivals who are using their free mobile messengers, Kakao Talk and LINE respectively, to fuel the popularity of their SNS services.
The total number of subscribers for Cyworld was 28 million as of October last year, and the company hasn’t unveiled figures since then, a likely sign of decrease. Kakao Story has over 34 million as of April, backed by 80 million users of its affiliate mobile messenger. NHN’s Band has 10 million.
SK was forced to downsize late last year due to a steep decline in its earnings. It posted an operating loss of 10.3 billion won in the first quarter, its sixth consecutive quarterly loss.
Its services lost further popularity from a data leak two years ago, and continuing court rulings that surfaces periodically continue to hurt its image even today.
Due to the saturation of the domestic market, it has also looked abroad for new revenue lines. It released its photo app called Cymera last year and currently has over 5 million users globally.
The company claims that its performance will improve in the second half, banking on its new businesses in mobile to be showcased soon and the realignment of its portfolio.