**2.1 Digital natives and digital nationalism**

One unique aspect of Korea's digital economy when compared to its international counterparts is the extent to which domestic apps and websites dominate the national online ecosystem. This is particularly significant, because unlike countries such as China where a regulated internet is in operation, foreign apps and platforms are generally free to enter and operate within the Korean marketplace. Korean companies have developed popular and widely used platforms that have gained significant market share. For example, Naver, a Korean search engine, has long been established as the go-to platform for internet searches, surpassing global giants such as Google in terms of domestic market share [30]. Additionally, messaging app KakaoTalk has gained immense popularity throughout the country, offering a convenient and feature-rich communication platform that outrivals international competitors like WhatsApp [31].

*Creative Industry Strategies in a Globalized and Digitized Media Landscape: The South Korean… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112902*

This dominance of domestic apps and platforms can be attributed to several factors [14]:


The success of domestic apps and websites has not only contributed to Korea's digital economy but has also cultivated a distinctive sense of national digital identity and fostered a vibrant digital culture. The historic popularity of Cyworld, a South Korean prototypical social network service launched as far back as 1999, is just one example that provides a powerful insight into the extent to which Korean citizens were remarkably early embracers of digital modes of communication, content sharing, and networking, even when compared to their counterparts in the U.S. [14].

In many ways, the seamless and intrinsic hybridity between Korean popular culture and digital communication culture can trace its roots to the earliest days of Korea's digital revolution. One of the indirect consequences of the widespread unemployment that followed the Asian Financial Crisis was an exponential development in digital skills and knowledge amongst the general public, which provided a foundation for digital innovation and entrepreneurship. Without work, many newly unemployed workers had begun to spend considerable time in 'PC Bangs' throughout the country. These distinctly Korean internet cafes emerged in the late 1990s and have played a significant role in fostering South Korea's internet and digital growth, while influencing the country's distinctive digital culture [32]. As affordable places from which highspeed internet connections and the latest gaming technologies could be accessed, PC Bangs were a crucial component in laying fertile groundwork for a cultural and societal proclivity for embracing emerging technologies and innovative media. This, combined with a strong national emphasis on STEM education, resulted in the emergence of a highly tech-literate populace benefitting from an extraordinarily high rate of internet penetration [33]. In hindsight, it was thus inevitable that the digital realm would become the primary medium of sharing and consuming cultural content in Korea, considerably earlier than international competitors.

Various IT companies in Korea, such as Samsung, LG, Naver, and Kakao, have taken advantage of this conducive national context by making significant strides in pioneering new digital technologies. Concurrently, Korean consumers have displayed remarkable agility in adapting to the evolving media landscape, often surpassing the global average in their demand for state-of-the-art digital technologies. For Koreans, the utilization of digital technologies is associated with the notion of connecting and collaborating digitally as a collective, rather than on an individual basis. This collective approach has enabled users to work together, engage in shared leisure activities, and even organize social and political events via digital platforms [20]. In the past, users were understood to be mere consumers of media infrastructure and content but have now emerged as major content creators themselves [14]. This active engagement from users has, to some extent, shaped the direction of research and development efforts

within the Korean IT industry, which has reinforced a digital culture of user engagement and collaboration.

It is feasible that culturally distinct features of Korean society have also contributed to this relationship. 'Ppalli ppalli' (meaning hurry up or faster), is an expression encompassing the culture of speed and haste in Korea, which is reflected in the pace of technological advancement. 'Na do' (meaning me too) is associated with a form of 'keeping up with the Joneses', which has been identified as contributing to forms of sociocultural homogeneity. This is reflected in the tendency for the general public to swiftly follow trends set by early adopters of digital technologies [20].

Although core digital technologies such as the Internet, broadband, and smartphones were not invented in Korea, the Korean "adaptation, development, and penetration of these digital technologies" has been "highly innovative [20]." The growing recognition of this significance reflects a gradual shift in technology studies, which has developed a more holistic understanding of the nature of technological change. Goldsmith et al. make the case that Korea has become a proving ground for "the deployment and penetration of digital technologies, as well as an important locus of innovation in mobile and consumer digital technologies and practices" [34], while Holroyd suggests that the fruits of Korea's digital transformation can be framed as the technological groundwork upon which the digital content industry in Korea was able to expand and flourish [35].

This convergence of technological advancement and a vibrant user culture sheds light on the close relationship between the Digital Hallyu phenomenon and Korea's thriving IT industry. As will be demonstrated in the next section, the Korean Wave itself and the plethora of content it has generated, both domestically and globally, is fundamentally inseparable from the 'Digital Wave' that has determined its size and directed its trajectory.
