CIOBIZ — Cyworld, a social network service previously owned by SK Telecom, announced a partnership with Blocko to build a social media platform built on a blockchain-based incentive scheme with the aim of rivaling Facebook, Kakao, and other digital incumbents in Asian markets. At present, Cyworld has 25,000,000 users. The teams will also work closely to explore integrating the AERGO public chain and establishing a data anchor with Cyworld’s blockchain-based social platform being developed over the coming months.

Blocko‘s Sung Won Park (left) and Cyworld’s Jonghak Jeon (right)

Cyworld will work with Blocko to accelerate development of Cyworld 3.0, which reinvents its current platform by incentivizing good behavior and network effects with blockchain assets, similar to Steemit. With the introduction of incentive markets and the reach to deploy a blockchain-based IT system on a commercial scale, Cyworld could pose serious competition to the likes of Facebook who grew rapidly and overtook Cyworld’s dominance in Korea in 2009.

“Our job at Blocko is to help companies build powerful business models around distributed databases. We hear companies all the time tell us about all of the radical things they want, then we get realistic with them and tell them what they really need,” said Phil Zamani, co-CEO at Blocko and CEO of AERGO in a statement. “Incentive markets are a phenomenon enabled at viable scale and in a trustless manner by permissionless blockchain networks. We believe that with our assistance, Cyworld can once again become the powerhouse it was in the social networking services space many years ago.”

About Blocko and AERGO

Blocko is a well-funded, Samsung-backed commercial blockchain startup offering multinational organizations the ability to design, deploy, and manage digital services on a secure distributed network. Enterprise-IT integration and cloud deployment know-how are at the core of its value proposition. The company provides a stable and secure blockchain operating system and an easy-to-use development platform with stable APIs.

Blocko builds and supports AERGO which takes Blocko’s battle-tested technology to the next level by morphing it into an entire end-to-end open-source platform based around a hybrid blockchain design. AERGO allows businesses to build innovative applications and services by sharing data on a trustless and serverless IT ecosystem.

About Cyworld

Cyworld is a South Korean social network service. Cyworld became an independent company and came out of the SK communication in 2014. After seeing a sharp decline in users when Facebook began operating in Korea in 2009, Cyworld now has over 25,000,000 users.