The history of Korea, both the south and the north is quite sad. Now more than ever we talk about this peninsula divided by a war that, like all of them, is going on too long and we are not going to enter historically what happened, but it occurs to me to start with curiosity. When the two Koreas separated, the rich, the hope, was in the north. Its southern neighbor was in 1960 it was one of the poorest nations in the world. Nobody could expect the economic miracle that would occur in South Korea that we can know today as the most connected country in the world.
If you have ever traveled in Asia, you will know that it is necessary to reach a minimum level of planning for what you want to do. Well ... in Korea ... it takes somewhat special planning. We are going to review 6 details that will help you see what makes South Korea the most connected country in the world.
1. Wifi
When you enter Thailand or Indonesia, the first thing you do is buy a prepaid card (if you want to move or take the "casual Instagram" photo you need data). In South Korea, no. You have Wifi in absolutely ALL sites, and when we talk about Wifi we talk about open networks so you can connect, even traveling by train we connect with different wifis. In fact, the telcos market in the country is one of the most advanced in the world, by broadband penetration (108%) with 20.42 million lines for 18.9 million hours, for something they have the Internet connection faster in the world and was the first country in the world to test 5G technology.
2. Everything with card or mobile
Did you know that South Korea is the country where most of the world's cards are used? I do not. So in Busan, the second largest city in South Korea, it took several hours and after several indications to find a place where I could change money. In what areas, changing money is impossible. Yes, we are bombarded to see daily how NFC platforms progress but we are far from using it when paying for the bus, buying ice cream or anything else for € 0.50.
3. Virtual reality
You will find this technology throughout the trip through the most connected country in the world, in fact, in the same airport of Incheon you can enjoy several virtual experiences before catching any flight, yes, most are related to the heights and perhaps they lacked common sense when choosing the site, or maybe not.
In the cities, in the main leisure areas you will find different "Recreation rooms" in which you will have fun playing all kinds of games with a level of immersion that Westerners are not used to, anyway they will have a lot of fun trying to teach you how to play and much more with our reactions.
4. Education and technology
Education, as in other Asian countries, is a bastion within South Korean society. While Spain devotes 4.1% of its GDP to education, Korea invests almost 7 %. In addition, it is socially accepted that families make donations to public schools to improve facilities or teachers.
Obviously, digital competence is one of the great educational priorities. Teachers integrate ICT into their classes and technology is a tool for everyone to have access to quality education. In Korea, there are almost three million students studying from home thanks to a digital platform called Cyber Home.
5. Transport infrastructure of the most connected country in the world
Here you finish flipping. Seoul has a population close to ten million inhabitants and has an enviable transport network and more like a more accessible city than a city like that.
How did they do it? Thanks to a technological platform called Topis (Transport Operation & Information Service), which consisted of its origins in an automated surveillance system and another transport management in real time, but as in everything in South Korea, evolves.
Currently, Topis is a platform that verifies the transit speed of 1,268km of roads, collecting data from 35,000 units of Taxi with GPS, more than 1,100 detectors that measure the volume of traffic, speed and accidents, 3,600 signal control devices in time real. In summary, all this data collection has a level of accuracy of 98%.
Topis has managed to reduce the accident rate in buses and increase the number of passengers. The transportation system in Seoul managed to increase the average speed of the buses by 33% from 2004 and 2016, maintaining a punctuality margin between 1 and 2 minutes, while the time of transshipment was reduced from 12 to only 3 minutes.
6. Korean multinationals
LG Corporation, Samsung, Teletech Sk, Sky Electronics .. Do you sound?
Korea gathers a great number of the technological multinationals of the world, it is not a coincidence that technological innovation is breathed in its streets and mixed with millenary traditions.
