Social Networking and Social Media in the United States, South Korea, and China

This article summarizes the panel discussion at Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2012 on the social media environment around the world, particularly the United States, South Korea, and China. The panelists discussed the current status of social networking and social media in the aforementioned countries. The first section begins with United States, with social networking pertaining to the population at large, the use of social networks in the business environment, and observed overuse and addictive behavior of wireless mobile devices (WMD) among users. The second section covers South Korea, with the discussion addressing social networking sites (SNS) and its history; the collectivism of Asian culture and how it affects users' behavior toward SNS; current trends, which include privacy concerns; and the future direction of SNS in Korea. Finally, in China, social media is further explored in the business models of SNS providers, followed by the customer base comparison between the United States and China.