Daum (web portal)

Daum
Type of site
 Web portal
Available in Korean
Owner Kakao Corp.
Website www.daum.net
Alexa rank

Increase 118 (Global, June 2016)

Steady 5 (South Korea, June 2016)
Commercial Yes
Registration Optional
Launched May 1997 (1997-05)
Current status Online
Daum
Hangul 다음
Hanja 多音
Revised Romanization Daeum
McCune–Reischauer Taŭm

Daum (Korean: 다음) is a South Korean web portal in South Korea, one of the top three along with Naver and Nate. Daum offers many Internet services to web users, including a popular free web-based e-mail, messaging service, forums, shopping and news. The word "daum" means "next", but it can also be interpreted as Hanja "多音", meaning "many sounds".[1]

Background

The popularity of Daum stems from the range of services it offers, but also from the fact that it was the first Korean web portal of significant size. Its popularity started when it merged with the then most popular e-mail service, daum.net or hanmail.net. After the merging, Daum started the forum service Daum Cafe which brought its firm status in the market. The term cafe and even internet cafe (Different from what is supposed to refer to in Western usage) is now used as the synonym for "Internet forum" in Korean.

History

From 2003, Daum started on-line direct automobile insurance by launching the subsidiary 'Daum Direct Auto Insurance' and from 2008, it became a partnership company with ERGO Insurance Group.

On August 2, 2004 Daum announced the purchase of Lycos for $95.4 million, and closed the transaction on October 6.[2] As part of a corporate restructuring to focus on mobile, social networks and location-based services, Daum sold Lycos for $36 million in August 2010 to Ybrant Digital, an internet marketing company based in Hyderabad, India.[3]

In 2006, they started a blogging service Tistory with 'Tatter and Company',[4] a blogging platform developing company and in July 2007, Daum took over all rights to manage the services.

The company also develops and distributes the freeware media player PotPlayer. In addition to its freeware media player(Daum tvPot), Daum Communications Corp. provides variety of services such as clouding service (Daum Cloud), Daum Dictionary (applicable on mobile devices), Daum Comics, and map service (Daum Maps).

Daum has about 874 employees as of March, 2009 and is the 2nd largest web portal service provider in South Korea in terms of daily visits.

In 2014, Daum merged with Kakao Corp. to form Daum Kakao.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Daum Corporate Identity info page". Retrieved 2014-05-07.
  2. ↑ "Korean Daum Acquires Lycos U.S." Lycos. 2004-10-06. Archived from the original on 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2007-01-25.
  3. ↑ "Ybrant Digital Buys Lycos for $36 Million". Retrieved 2011-03-07.
  4. ↑ In 2008, Google Korea acquired 'Tatter and Company':"Google Buys South Korean Blog Company TNC". InformationWeek. 2008-10-12.
  5. ↑ Shu, Catherine. "Kakao And Daum To Merge, Creating One Of South Korea's Largest Internet Companies".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.