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Cyworld.com was named the hit product of the year by Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI). Cyworld, a personal Internet homepage service provider, created new terms such as "cyholic," and has acquired over 10 million registered users within its first three years.
Multi-purpose mobile phones with multiple functions like digital cameras, MP3 players, blood sugar testers, mosquito repellent and urgent message senders were ranked second.
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Hit products from 2004: Cyworld; cell phones with MP3 players, digital cameras, and mosquito repellant; Kwangdong Pharmaceutical's "Vita 500."
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Kwangdong Pharmaceutical Co.¡¯s health drink ¡°Vita 500,¡± which has been recording 100 percent annual sales growth since it was launched in February 2001, came in third. Fourth place went to the stars of the Korean wave, including ¡°Yonsama¡± Bae Yong-joon, and fifth place went to large-capacity MP3 players, which have assumed a leading role in mobile audio entertainment.
Cosmetics at knockdown prices manufactured by brands such as "Missha" and "The Face Shop" were at sixth, and a soap opera, ¡°Lovers in Paris,¡± which enjoyed enormous popularity with viewer ratings over 50 percent, came in seventh. Eighth place was the ¡°Magic Thousand-Character Chinese Classic,¡± an educational comic book for children. Korea Housing Finance Corporation¡¯s long-term loan program for buying houses came in ninth, and hot and spicy foods like ¡°Peppered fire chicken¡± (Korean: hongcho buldalk) came in tenth.
The results of an online poll of SERI Internet members and the opinions of outside experts were reflected on the ranking.
(Choi Hong-seop, hschoi@chosun.com )
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