[Courtesy of Google]
US Search Engine Google issued a guarded warning Monday that South Korea could lose its global competitiveness in lucrative new businesses like Pokemon Go if it drags its feet in allowing the use of maps for global services.
The warning came in a report by Kwon Bom-jun, a software engineer in charge of map production from Google's South Korean branch, at a parliamentary debate.
"Most regrettable of all, South Kore may see the delayed introduction of innovation using mapping services and fall behind in global competition as a result," he said, citing Pokemon Go as an example. The mobile game has been a global hit but it's not available in South Korea because game developers use Google's mapping service.
"In the mobile era, a combination of (global) position information and mapping services will be at the center of innovation, and Pokemon Go is just the beginning of such an innovation," Kwon said.
Google provides almost unrestricted map services worldwide but it cannot do so in South Korea because of its security law which bans unauthorized exports of map data and requires Google to have sensitive items blurred.
South Korea should deliver a final decision on Google's request to gain access to maps by August 25. Defense Minister Han Min-koo has already voiced a negative view, insisting sensitive facilities should be blurred out first.
Goole has also refused to put one of its data servers in South Korea for its mapping service, saying users abroad could see sensitive facilities through mapping services provided by competitors.
The tussle has hampered Google's efforts to roll out better services, including real-time traffic information, 3-D maps and driving directions in South Korea, one of the world's most wired countries.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
