While it’s no secret that Google absolutely dominates U.S. search, it’s also no surprise that Google lags behind domestic competitors in various overseas markets. South Korea, where about 70% of homes have high-speed Internet connections, is an arena where Google has struggled. CEO Eric Schmidt met with Seok Jong-Hun, the head of Daum Communications, South Korea’s second-largest Web portal on Tuesday to discuss ways to develop their partnership.
Daum trails NHN Corp.’s Naver in South Korea, while Google is left far behind in 16th place. Google’s partnership with Daum began in 2006 when Daum chose not to renew a contract with Yahoo! in favor of the U.S. search giant.
The bond that seems to be the primary focus is advertising. A statement from Daum after Tuesday’s meeting said, “Daum and Google came to strengthen their partnership in the online advertisement markets, laying the ground for more service tie-ups that will have a synergy effect.”
Currently, Daum is running Google’s cost-per-click search advertisements.
Daum is also hoping to utilize Google’s YouTube video content as it looks to pull ahead of close rival Pandora TV in South Korea.
Google hopes to raise its standing amongst the domestic portals in the country, where most users say that local sites are better accustomed to the tastes of the South Korean market. “Users in South Korea say the local sites are better adapted to factors specific to the market, with more visually complex sites and reliance on human interaction instead of software to get search results,” the Canadian Press said.
Google introduced its Korean-language version of its search engine in 2000.
Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070529/tc_afp/
skoreausitgoogledaum;_ylt=ApC8Uudjz3QpMmh8sFvExMz6VbIF
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007482939
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/news/gizmos/
story.html?id=79e8c050-73ea-4ee2-b82e-c296deb88446&k=48208
Digg 
