The Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) said Wednesday its website members chose the Cheonggye Stream as the hit product of the year since with it nature has been restored to the heart of a mega city. “Blue Ocean Strategy” made waves by suggesting high-profit strategies in lucrative untapped markets, where competition is less fierce. SERI conducted the survey of its 11,406 website members from Dec. 8 to 10.

Defining “products” as all goods, services and facilities on which people spend time and money, the institute asked respondents to select their top 10 hit products from among 60 candidates.

Other hit products include mixed martial arts discipline K-1, strong-minded soap-opera heroines Geum-soon, Maeng-soon and Sam-soon,” online racing game Cartrider, car navigation devices, the movie “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, and blogs.

Consumers look for fun in a huge variety of ways to relieve stress and fatigue, and the restored Cheonggye Stream, K-1 and Cartrider met the demand, the institute says. The success of the movie “Welcome to Dongmakgol” and book “Blue Ocean Strategy” reflects people’s desire for a utopia in difficult economic times, SERI said. But people with a strong sense of reality were enthusiastic about both investing in stock-related indirect financial products and about TV entertainment featuring spirited women. Life has been further digitalized with the spread of satellite DMB cell phones, automobile navigators and blogs, the institute said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )