Cyworld Fades into History... Closed by National Tax Service

Ministry of Science and ICT Conducts On-Site Inspection to Confirm Cyworld's Closure Status

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] The first-generation social networking service (SNS) Cyworld is expected to disappear into the annals of history.

According to the National Tax Service's Hometax on the 4th, Cyworld completed its business closure process on the 26th of last month. Currently, when accessing the Cyworld website, the homepage loads, but logging in and viewing photos are not functioning properly.

Cyworld also experienced an access outage in October last year. At that time, concerns about service suspension arose ahead of the domain expiration date, but Cyworld extended the domain expiration to November 12 of this year and announced its intention to continue the service.

Founded in 1999, Cyworld enjoyed great popularity in South Korea until the mid-to-late 2000s with content such as Minihompy, Ilchon, and Dotori, alongside the development of digital cameras. However, it failed to adapt during the transition from a PC-centered environment to a smartphone-centered one and rapidly declined as it was overshadowed by global SNS platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to conduct an on-site investigation to verify the actual closure of Cyworld. It is known that Cyworld has not yet reported its closure to the Ministry of Science and ICT. According to the Telecommunications Business Act, as a value-added telecommunications service provider, Cyworld must notify users of the closure before shutting down and report the closure to the Ministry of Science and ICT in advance. This procedure is separate from the National Tax Service's business closure process.

If Cyworld's closure is confirmed, it will be practically impossible to recover users' photo albums and posts. Article 29 of the Information and Communications Network Act stipulates that internet service providers must immediately delete user data upon business closure.