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Google Chrome will support ActiveX for Korea

Nov 27, 2008 12:18

Surprise! Yesterday, Google Korea had a press conference about what it has achieved and done in 2008 and briefly introduced its plans for 2009. Many stories have been released during this conference but only one thing caught on my attention among all the articles I found.

Google Chrome Web browser will support ActiveX restrictively for the Korean market, since none of the browsers can stand out in Korea without support for ActiveX. Firefox, Safari, Opera and all other big or small fancy-looking international browsers haven't succeeded in Korea. I have to say about 90 percent or more of Koreans use Internet Explorer for their default Web browser because of ActiveX problems.

Well, we don't have much choice in that the Government won't push the Web sites to follow and modify or rebuild their sites under the Web standards without putting in an ActiveX solution. Entire Web sites which are highly tied to life in Korea, such as Internet banking sites, government-related sites, online sites and giant portal sites, include ActiveX solutions to run payment systems and site-related program loaders. If you are living in Korea but only visiting Internet sites overseas, then you can have various selections of Web browsers.

However, it's a very unusual case, right?

I also installed Google Chrome on my all PCs since I like the way it looks and how fast it is with loading sites compared to Internet Explorer, but I use Chrome only when surfing around English Web sites whose servers are not located in Korea. Even though I bought a MacBook a year ago, I have to install Bootcamp in order to secure Windows access to use IE for Internet banking and online shopping.

This is same story for the Linux OS. I tried Ubuntu and liked it very much, but I needed to be return to MS to get into an Internet environment suitable for Korea. So sad, isn't it?

Since those Web sites won't change their policy on their Web solution, I have to wait for Mozilla or Apple and Google to change their minds to support ActiveX, but it's ridiculous for them to make a decision like this. ActiveX is only alive in Korea and it's meaningless for Apple, Google or Mozilla to put in the effort and resources to support ActiveX. However, Google seems to have made up its mind to support ActiveX on its Chome for the near future.

I'm sure many of you and other Web browser developers are blaming Google's decision since it goes against building the Web standard. But you should understand its situation and market stand in Korea. Google is releasing many services that have achieved great feedback overseas, but these just don't seem to appeal to Koreans. If you check out all the Google services which run in Korea, most have unique differences compared to what you guys usually see. Google has localized most of service, including even the main interface of the Google search engine, for Korea.

Google is also going to launch its Google Maps service in Korea soon, and has decided to run a map server based in Korea in order to get approval from the Korean Government. It seems Google is having an even more tough time here than in China, isn't it?



The smart phone and portable Internet device market is rising and Korea is having a tough time with manufacturers since the main feature, which is Web browsing, is limited by ActiveX.

I hope ActiveX goes away from the Korean Internet environment soon. Come on, portals and banks, you guys are the first sites that should follow the international Web standard!

Here's more information about Google Korea"

• It is holding about 2 percent of the Internet search market share


• It runs localized services like Google Maps, Knol, YouTube, iGoogle, Chome


• Google bought Korean blog platform TNC on September 12, 2008. Google has its own blogging platform but may try to learn and localize it for Korea later? Who knows?

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