Korea has embraced the Internet faster and with more fervour than anywhere else in Asia.
Signs of change are everywhere.
Money is flowing to small companies previously starved for capital by a financial system that once steered funds only to a favoured few. The Internet is shaping up as the key that could unlock the Korean economy's full potential. While Korean export industries are world-class, the domestic economy is another story. Even as the chaebols competed in foreign markets they grew fat and slow at home on a diet of cheap loans and easy pickings in a protected market. The Internet and other new technologies could unleash in South Korea the kind of productivity gains that have driven the U.S. economy to new highs in the past few years.