Well, usually the person who asks this question knows a thing or two about Korea, so they expect some typical answers such as online gaming, mobile, or the Cyworld. But here's a trend that I think is changing the Korean internet/media landscape in a more profound way: the "Mee-d".
"Mee-d" (sounds the same as the English word "mid" but with a more prominent "d" pronunciation) is the Korean word short for "American Dramas." Shows like Prison Break and CSI, among hundreds of others, are avidly followed by tens of millions of Korean young people.
Almost invariably, these shows are downloaded off the web and consumed on notebook computers or PMPs (Portable Media Players). Legal? Of course not. Ads? There's none. The language barrier? Korean captions are composed in an open source way. Community volunteers submit the translations of those American shows. There's no clear benefit to the volunteer translators other than fame, but whenever the new episode comes out, a race goes on for who submits the translation file first, with a more accurate translation.
As for the Prison Break, a Korean cable company belatedly purchased the license and broadcast the show, but that was after everybody watched it, so the company only had a limited success.
Do the Korean youths feel guilty here? Not at all, because there's no way they can legally purchase the shows anyway. So this means the broadcasting companies are missing out huge opportunities already. But perhaps more importantly, the media companies can predict what will happen to the way media is consumed in the rest of the world by looking at what's happening in the Korean market.
Some of the immediate takeaways from the Korean Mee-d pheonomena: Soon it will be almost impossible to separate out the "internet" from "media"; Broadcasting companies better come up with an easy and affordable way of legally downloading their content, or they will be doomed by not monetizing the non-TV viewers - who count by tens of milliions already.
I wonder how Prison Break is watched in other countries. Does anyone know?
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