Nate facts for kids
|
Type of site
|
Web portal, web search engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | Korean |
| Owner | SK Communications |
| Commercial | Yes |
Nate is a popular web portal in South Korea. It was created by a company called SK Communications. Think of a web portal as a big website that offers many different services in one place, like a search engine, news, and more.
Nate grew by joining with other online services. In 2002, it combined with NETSGO and then with Lycos Korea. A big change happened in 2003 when Nate took over Cyworld, a very popular online community service. In 2009, Nate also joined with Empas, another web portal. These mergers helped Nate become one of the most famous web portals in Korea.
By 2006, Nate had about 19 million users. This number changed over time, dropping to 18 million by 2008. In 2009, Nate also had users from other countries, including 7 million from China and 450,000 from Vietnam.
Contents
NateOn: Instant Messaging
NateOn is a quick messenger service provided by Nate. It allows people to send instant messages to each other, much like texting but on a computer or phone app. In 2005, NateOn became more popular than MSN Messenger in South Korea.
Why NateOn Was Popular
NateOn became South Korea's most used messenger for a few reasons. One big reason was its direct connection with Cyworld. This made it easy for Cyworld users to chat with their friends. Another popular feature was its simple and free text message service. This allowed users to send texts to mobile phones without extra cost.
NateOn Across Devices
NateOn offers different versions for various computer systems. It has a main version for Windows computers. There are also test versions, called beta versions, available for Mac OS 10 and Linux users.
NateOn Users and Features
NateOn has a large user base, with about 22 million people using the service. Besides sending text messages, NateOn also lets users talk to each other using a feature called NateOn Phone. This allows for voice calls through the messenger.
