Twitter fever sweeps Korea

By Kim Tae-gyu

Staff reporter

Twitter, the micro-blogging service, continues to win the hearts and minds of Koreans, not only the tech-savvy younger generation but also the less trend-sensitive 50- and 60-somethings.

When the social-networking site was launched a few years ago, it instantly attracted enthusiastic responses from the country's sports stars and entertainers who were often accused of capitalizing on the features to drum up support and a greater fan base.

In addition, political parties consistently resorted to Twitter during elections. Rep. Na Kyung-won of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) is to hold a press meeting on Twitter while running in the party's leadership race slated for this month.

Now the horizon is expanding. Tycoons of the country's conglomerates, respected politicians in their 60s and older novelists are also briskly contributing to the Twitter frenzy.

Doosan Corp. Chairman Park Yong-maan might be the most outstanding example as the 55-year-old keeps "tweeting" although he has received some unwanted media attention due to his remarks on the site.

The latest high-profile newcomers to Twitter are Park Geun-hye, 58, the former chairwoman of the GNP, and novelist Hwang Sok-yong, who was born in early 1943 during Japanese colonial rule.

Touted as one of the strongest candidates to become the next president, Park opened her Twitter account late last month and has drawn around 16,000 followers as of Sunday. She seems to run the site on her own instead of having her secretariat manage it.

"Hello, this is Park. I hope to share a lot of time with you ... Many may wonder whether or not I manage this Twitter account directly. This is somewhat difficult for a novice like me but I am taking charge of it myself," Park said.

Hwang, most of whose books deal with such serious topics as war, the division of the two Koreas, labor activists or anti-dictatorial movements to name just a few, also began to tweet late last month.

More than half a million Koreans are believed to have Twitter accounts and they spend a lot of time on the mobile-blogging site, according to global market researchers.

Social media measurement company Semiocast revealed over the weekend that Korea ranked seventh in terms of the number of short messages, trailing such countries as the United States, Japan, Indonesia and Brazil.

The Paris-based entity conducted a 24-hour study on 2.9 million tweets in late June to find that the most traffic originated from Asia thanks to three countries ― Japan, Indonesia and Korea.

Clientopedia, another consultancy, found midway through last month that the Korean-language is the sixth most widely used at 2.05 percent.

트위터 열풍 어디까지 부나?

마이크로 블로깅 트위터의 열풍이 거침없이 대한민국을 강타하고 있다. 이전에는 주로 젊은 세대들을 타깃으로 하거나 연예인/운동선수의 홍보수단으로 많이 활용되었으나 지금은 50대나 60대의 사용이 늘고 있다.

비근한 예가 박근혜 전 한나라당 대표나 소설가 황석영씨. 환갑을 바라보고 있는박 전 대표는 지난 달 말 트위터 계정을 만들어 직접 운영 하고 있다. 박 전 대표는 인사말을 통해 ``안녕하십니까, 박근혜입니다. 저도 이제 트위터를 시작합니다. 앞으로 많은 시간을 함께 할 수 있기를 바랍니다”라고 밝혔다.

실제로 본인이 트위터를 사용하는지 묻는 질문에는 ``많은 분들이 제가 직접 하는지 궁금해 하시네요. 트위터 초보라서 쉽지는 않지만 직접 하는 것 맞습니다”라고 밝히기도 했다.

일제 강점기에 태어난 소설가 황석영씨도 지난 달부터 트위터에 새로 자리를 잡았다. 전쟁, 분단, 민주화 운동 등 주로 심각한 주제로 작품 활동을 해왔던 그도 신세대의 대명사인 모바일 블로깅 세상에 진출한 셈이다.

당연히 트위터 관련 트레픽이 폭발하고 있다. 4일 프랑스 시장조사업체 세미오캐스트에 따르면 한국의 트위터 트래픽이 미국, 일본, 인도네시아, 브라질 등에 이에 세계 7위로 기록되었다. 인구 수에 비하면 엄청난 양이다.