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South Koreans are Adopting Mobile Money Services

South Korea is already known for its leadership in landline broadband service adoption. Many of the nation's residents are also pioneers of mobile broadband service adoption.

Nearly half (47 percent) of South Koreans polled intend to purchase a smartphone within the next six months, according to the results of a consumer survey conducted this year by ABI Research.

South Koreans already own an average of 1.6 mobile devices each, and are among the world's most enthusiastic consumers of new mobile technologies, upgrading their devices frequently and utilizing many forward-looking applications.

"South Koreans are keen adopters of mobile money services," notes practice director Neil Strother at ABI.

They're using mobile devices to do banking (a very high 69 percent of respondents), and pay bills (40 percent).

Curiously, though, most South Koreans have little confidence in the security of their mobile phones: only 7 percent believed they were completely or very secure, while 59 percent rated security as low or nonexistent.

Either they rationally accept heightened risk as the price of engaging in activities they find useful, or, like many of us, would rather not think about it.

South Koreans respond well to mobile advertising. According to Strother, "Nearly 45 percenet of those polled reported having clicked on a mobile advertisement at least once; of those, 40 percent received a coupon as a result, and a significant 27 percent actually downloaded or purchased content as a result."

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