Online, off course

摘要

Six rows of computer screens light up the shaded room. The customers, mostly edgy young men in suits or jeans, are stoked up to their eyeballs on cola, coffee, cigarettes and any other stimulants on offer. Computer clubs such as this have been sprouting all over South Korea recently, catering for a nation of fanatical online game-players. Yet Park Jong Bae has other plans for the rooms he has been refurbishing in central Seoul. Mr Park wants his customers to play not Star-craft, but the stockmarket. An exotic hobby among the rich only a year ago, online trading has quickly become a national passion. Paxnet, a company that franchises clubs such as Mr Park's, has 30-odd centres and plans 250 by the end of next year. When the stockmarket is closed, the punters dial in to Internet sites such as cy-bersdaq, where they can play share-trading games for prizes. From their homes, their offices and now their mobile phones, amateur share traders have turned South Korea into the most developed market in the world for online share trading (see chart).