NCsoft Expanding Non-Game Biz

By Cho Jin-seo

Staff Reporter

Online computer game company NCsoft is growing its non-game business in an effort to diversify its business portfolio.

NCsoft is organizing a team to lead the sales and marketing of non-game Internet businesses such as online identification and social-networking services, an official said. It has also contacted a mid-career journalist from Chosun Ilbo, the largest daily newspaper in Korea, to take charge of the strategic affairs of the Internet service operation.

``We are seriously discussing with the Chosun reporter about his joining NCsoft, and we expect that he will work with us in the near future,'' the firm said in a statement earlier this week.

The reporter in the negotiations, Hwang Soon-hyun, is a veteran in the IT industry and is

currently the chief of the Internet news team at the daily. He is also an acquaintance of NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin, a company official said.

It is not an unusual decision for Korean Internet companies to recruit IT journalists for their top jobs. Chae Hwi-young, CEO of NHN _ the largest Internet company _ was a reporter for the Yonhap news agency before he was hired by Yahoo Korea's news team. Seok Jong-hoon, CEO of Daum Communications _ the second largest portal, is also a former IT reporter for the Chosun Ilbo.

NCsoft is one of the largest game companies in South Korea, and a leading global player in the so-called multiplayer online role-playing game field with a series of hit games such as ``Lineage'' and ``Guild Wars.'' As the growth in the game sector has stalled, the company started to look for new business items in the non-game sector. It has operated an in-house software studio called Openmaru, which launched a number of Web utility services. A rumor in the industry is that the firm has spent approximately 30 billion won on it so far.

One of the new items is the so-called Open ID project, which allows Internet users to access multiple Web sites with an ID and a password. NCsoft has already become a leader in the Open ID business in South Korea though the sector is still in its fledgling stages, said Song Kyo-seok, manager of Ahnlab, which is also involved in the Open ID project. ``Kim Taek-jin is a very strong supporter of the project,'' he said.

NCsoft has been passive in promoting activities of its non-game sector for several reasons. One is that they have yet to make any profit from the Openmaru projects. Another reason is that in its overseas branches, especially in the United States, the movement was sometimes interpreted as a sign of the firm's decreasing investment in the game sector.

The company, however, made clear its intention of nurturing the non-game business by forging several partnership deals with Web portal sites. Since January, it has signed contracts with Daum Communications and Yahoo Korea to provide its Web tools such as Lemon Pen and Spring Note for their services.

``We will cooperate in developing and promoting new services,'' said Yahoo Korea's public relations official Sunny Park, adding that the firms will launch the joint project by June.

In a separate move, the firm has plans to develop video games for the PlayStation3 console.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr