The server room of Naver’s data center. (image: Naver Business Platform Corp.)
SEOUL, July 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite a steady increase in the usage rate for personal cloud services in South Korea, a variety of such services are making consumers uncomfortable by switching to paid services or being terminated, thereby limiting options for consumers.
According to a report from the state-run Korea Information Society Development Institute, a survey conducted last year with 10,302 local consumers showed that the usage rate for personal cloud services reached 20 percent.
Nonetheless, the number of options that consumers can select is increasingly limited.
Google Cloud Korea, which operates the U.S. tech giant’s cloud services in South Korea, turned its photo storage service Google Photos into a paid service last month.
The nation’s three major mobile carriers, which lagged behind in the cloud service competition, are washing their hands from cloud services citing the change in market environment.
LG Uplus Corp. plans to terminate its Uplus Box service in December, while SK Telecom Co. will discontinue its Cloudberry service in September. KT Corp. already terminated its personal cloud service last year.
“Domestic players that have provided personal cloud services for free are moving out of the business since the number of Google service users is steadily increasing,” an industry official said.
“Against this backdrop, global platforms’ cloud services will likely wield stronger influence. Other cloud service providers such as Naver are also expected to choose whether or not to shift to paid services depending on the competition.”
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
