Education

S. Korea makes play on Chinese words

By Shannon Aitken (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-14 07:59

Lee Sung-won and his international team at the nciku office in Beijing. Zou Hong / China Daily

While some Beijingers rushed to the Western goldfields in the 19th and 20th centuries to make their fortunes, the city and the country have now become goldfields for the world with foreign companies digging for their own wealth.

Success in the capital, though, can be as elusive as a golden nugget, and some pack up and leave with nothing but frustration. Those who persevere, however, can often discover unexpected business opportunities.

Nciku, the unusually-named online Chinese-English dictionary, has a similar story. With its office located in Beijing, it is now one of the most successful online dictionaries for learners of Chinese. However, the brand's success was never in the original expansion plans of its parent South Korean company, NHN.

NHN, which operates both Naver - South Korea's most popular search engine - and Hangame - the country's leading online game portal - wanted to expand into China with similar businesses.

So, in 2004, the company sent Lee Sung-won and his team to Beijing to establish Ourgame, a joint venture move with local company Sea Rainbow Holdings.

It wasn't long, however, before NHN realized that the cultural differences between the two companies, together with the saturated Chinese online game market, made the business untenable. After briefly looking into an online ticketing business, NHN withdrew from Beijing, leaving only Lee behind to tidy up the legal loose ends.

It was during this time that Lee realized his Chinese language wasn't up to par for the legal conversations and arguments he had to deal with, so he sent himself back to school.

Lee found that he was fine when studying in class but couldn't apply his knowledge on the street. He also noticed that the heavy dictionaries most people used were full of archaic language.

"I proposed to NHN that it would be possible to start an online dictionary service," he explained. "They were still seeking the chance to penetrate the Chinese market and approved my plan."

Lee then did a feasibility study.

"We found that at least 50 percent of foreign people living in China were dissatisfied with the current dictionary services," he said.

"Many dictionaries are written from the concept of publishers and are very rigid. They want to sell them by updating every three to five years."

Lee realized that because China's language is changing as quickly as its lifestyle, a printed dictionary soon becomes outdated.

With virtually no competition, NHN seized the opportunity and nciku was founded. Eight months later, in April 2007, its first version was launched.

Nciku, pronounced "n-tse-ku" and roughly translated as "next-word-cool", is a free online service targeting English-speaking learners of Chinese. The Beijing-based company comprises 26 people, including staff members from a wide range of countries.

After starting with a purchased stock of about 200,000 words, it now has more than 5 million content items and continues to expand this at a rate of about 20 new words every week. It also includes language-learning tools, such as memorization tests, and uses advanced technology to maximize the user experience.

Despite its success, nciku still hasn't been the goldmine that NHN was hoping for and there are numerous challenges that restrain the company's profitability.

Lee said many people prefer to stick with long-established names such as the Oxford Dictionary and are resistant to online newcomers.

"Also, many users are just tourists," Lee said. "They visit our website once or twice, then forget everything when they go home. Our users are happy with our service but this doesn't help us make money."

With competitors nipping at their heels - such as upcoming MDGB and the Chinese favorite for those learning English, iciba - profit comes primarily from advertising.

However, not all companies want to get featured on a dictionary website and so the company constantly needs to flex its creativity with marketable add-ons, such as iPhone and Android phone apps, and educational e-books.

Nciku plans to expand its market reach with new languages, as well as endear itself to the Chinese abroad with a new Chinese e-book service, which is set to have at least 100,000 Chinese novels (with word-search functions) ready for downloading within the next year.

So, while the limited profit margin keeps nciku on its toes, for the users it means the ongoing delight of new services, upgrades and enhancements, and new innovative ways to learn this frustratingly-difficult language.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/14/2010)