Cyworld, which appeared in 1999 and created a craze for 'minihompy', was revived on the 2nd. Former CEO Jeon Jeon-wan, who promised to normalize while showing tears in the past, opened a statement at the same time as the service resumed and said goodbye.
In a notice on the Cyworld website on the same day, former CEO Jeon bowed his head, saying, “I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to customers due to the temporary suspension of the Cyworld service for the past two years.” wrote down the road
He said, “In 2016, I confirmed that there are people who cannot leave Cyworld because of the memories made by 32 million people over the past 20 years. “I took over Cyworld because I thought it would be undesirable for the development of the Internet.”
“However, during data restoration, we were unable to secure the investment for the final development and suffered business difficulties such as unpaid wages in 2019. has arrived,” he said.
He continued, “Even though I was sentenced to prison in the first trial while receiving a trial for non-payment of wages, I did not give up and found an investor, and earlier this year, I found a buyer who believed in the potential of Cyworld.” It has arrived today,” he said.
Finally, "Cyworld will visit you with a wonderful appearance soon and will regain its former reputation." In anticipation of a wonderful revival, he said, "Leaving the past regrets and gratitude behind, I say a long goodbye to you. I am truly grateful,” he added.
Cyworld rose to prominence in the 2000s as it became popular as a native SNS in Korea. It has created various buzzwords such as ‘acorn’, ‘minihompy’, and ‘connecting one villager’, and in 2009, the number of cases surpassed 1 billion. At one point, the number of monthly users exceeded 20 million. However, as the digital environment rapidly changed from PC to mobile, it was on a downtrend. In the 2010s, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram dominated the domestic market.
Cyworld, which had only maintained a reputation, was taken over by the former CEO, the founder of Prechal, in 2016 and aimed for revival. With an investment of 5 billion won from Samsung Venture Investment, various attempts were made, such as developing a news service and issuing cryptocurrency. However, in the end, they could not get out of the competition and soon became a ghost company.
In the end, the service was suspended in October 2019, and as the domain expiration date approached at the end of last year, it was in danger of being “eaten”. Fortunately, the ownership of the domain address was extended by one year, and at the time, a press interview with the former CEO who was convinced of the revival of Cyworld, raised the expectations of users. In addition, as the craze for recalling content of memories such as the mini-hompy BGM is blowing, more netizens are looking for ways to access Cyworld.
Cyworld Jet, which became a new acquirer after many twists and turns, started the 'tasting service' after completing data recovery of existing members' photos, videos, and writings from 4:20 pm on the same day. When you visit the Cyworld website and verify your real name, the ID is automatically found and the number of restored Acorns, BGMs, posts, videos, and photos is notified. Refunds are also accepted for existing acorn holders. However, it is not possible to see all the posts yet.
Full text of the position of former CEO Jeon Jeon-wan
Dear Cyworld Customers,
I am Jeon Jeon, the CEO of Cyworld.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the temporary suspension of the Cyworld service for the past two years.
Cyworld service was started by a venture company in 1999, and was acquired by the parent group due to financial difficulties in 2002, and in 2011, it became a national SNS with a total of 32 million members. However, the Cyworld service, developed based on the web such as minihompy, has been in decline since 2011 due to the delay in the transition to a mobile environment and competition from foreign SNS such as Facebook and Twitter. It's possible. Afterwards, 23 employees took over Cyworld from the parent group and operated the service as a small venture.
At the time of 2016, I have a truly vast number of precious memories from 32 million customers, including 17 billion photos, 150 million videos, and 530 million sound sources, of the small daily lives that 32 million customers have made over the past 20 years. We have confirmed that more than this number of people are still accessing the Cyworld service intermittently as they are unable to leave Cyworld. We took over Cyworld service with the belief that it would not be desirable for the development of the Internet in Korea as well as not protecting the precious memories of customers if Cyworld, a native SNS, ceased to service and disappeared into history.
However, the Cyworld service
First, since all core services such as minihompy, minime, and club are web-based, it is necessary to optimize them for the mobile environment and develop new ones.
Second, the technology applied to the service is too outdated and needs to be completely redeveloped using the latest technology.
Third, while maintaining the sensibility of Cyworld, such as minihompy and mini-me, applied with video and 3D-based metaverse, Cyworld's services including new trends should be developed and supplemented.
Fourth, due to the fact that the vast amount of customer data left unattended by the company before the acquisition must be completely restored and prepared for service, etc.
Restoring all data, while designing and developing the “Cyworld 3.0” service, we could not secure the investment for the final development. In 2019, due to management difficulties such as non-payment of wages, nearly 100 employees left the company with all their regrets behind them.
However, as director Yogi Berra said, “It is not over, till it is over,” he did not give up even though he was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison at the first trial during the trial for non-payment of wages. We have been looking for investors with all our might. Nevertheless, there are skeptics about the revival of Cyworld. In particular, due to the corona virus, we were unable to find a acquirer who could invest tens of billions of dollars in the emergency management system.
The new acquirer is Cyworld Jet Co., Ltd.
Cyworld Jet Co., Ltd. will automate ID search from August 2, 2021.
According to the “Personal Information Protection Act” of Korea, there is a procedure for obtaining the consent of customers to transfer personal information when the operating entity (corporation) of the Cyworld service changes. From today, we will start the process.
Cyworld customers!
The Cyworld service has had many ups and downs over the past 20 years. However, he did not die yet, and he endured until the end to reach this day. The precious memories of each of the 32 million people were the greatest strength to endure on this long and difficult road, and now we will make a fresh start with “Cyworld Mobile Service”.
I believe that Cyworld Jet Co., Ltd. will return to all of you with a cool image of Cyworld as soon as it successfully completes the development of “Cyworld Mobile Service”, and Cyworld will resurrect and regain its former reputation as a native SNS.
In anticipation of Cyworld's wonderful revival, I would like to say a long goodbye to all of you, leaving behind my regrets and gratitude. Thank you all very much.
2021.08.02 Cyworld Co., Ltd. CEO Jeon Jeon-wan