Nowadays, when you meet someone for the first time, it is very common to ask this person whether he or she does 'CY'. Cy short for cyworld has become one of our daily life style in Korea. SK Communications who operates Cyworld recently celebrated its 20millionth member. So called minihomepage operated by Cyworld started in 2001 and in the year 2003 the number grew rapidly. One year later, the number reached 10million.
With average of 20,000 new members signing up everyday, Cyworld now has 20million members.

What has brought this popularity?
Nobody thought Cyworld would gain this popularity in short period of time. Cyworld realized Korean computer users taste and applied its knowledge in the business. Korean PC users like to show off their skills and talents to others. Skills include not only PC usage but also their ability in using digital cameras. But most of all, Koreans love to make friends. Cyworld was the first to realize the importance of online friendship. Cyworld called this friendship a ‘CHON’(degree of kinship).By using this Cyworld’s ‘CHON’, anyone can easily make friends, even with total stranger. With these functions pc users can show pictures to online friends and share ideas. This function was more effective than email or any other communication tool.
Despite the age and sex differences, Koreans were fascinated by this idea.  It is no surprising that 950,000 of the members are senior citizens aged 50 and older.

According to the research done by SK Communications, most of cyworld users can find an old friend in four steps. In other words, online friendship is easier than offline. Sometime a person's popularity is measured by the number of 'CHON' this person has.
(number of CHON, means number of online friends). Members who have more than 50 CHON is 3.1million. More than 100CHON is 120 thousands. More than 1000 CHON is 1200. You might think this is nothing, but trust me. This is big. This number is not just a number. This number is the barometer of a person’s human relationship. These days, it very common to ask for the address of cyworld during job interview or at the blind date.

Everybody has ups and downs.
Despite Cyworld's popularity, Cyworld lost some of its momentum recent years. According to one of surveys, Cyworld is now the 5585th most visited Web site on the world, down by 1331 from three months ago.
Longevity in online is not easy. Specially in Korean market. Korean PC users tend to fed up easily and look for new things. This means it is the time for change. SK Communications know it is the time for change and it has opened its 2nd version, C2 to public. Lot of PC users are looking forward to this and so am I.
New version does not necessarily mean success. But we have seen Cyworld's success and we are looking forward to another success in near future.