Will Cyworld Truly Be Reborn?

While browsing my feed, I came across a nostalgic Cyworld post. Feeling nostalgic, I left a comment and, having already heard about its revival, visited the official website. However, the service was still under preparation, and I could only find some Q&A on the official blog. But there was no indication of when it would be available, and although they mentioned international users would be able to use it, I still had many questions, such as how to obtain and manage Doto (virtual currency).

This made me want to reminisce about twenty years ago. I won't reveal my year of graduation as it would reveal my age, but I'll just say I was a university student in the early to mid-2000s. Back in high school, I used to enjoy listening to classical music on Cyworld, but when I went to university, everyone was using Cyworld and kept asking me why I wasn't. So, I finally joined and created a mini-homepage.

Back then, it was the feature phone era, so important announcements were mostly made through online communities. Daum Cafe was also very active at the time, and in my department, we moved from Daum Cafe to a Cyworld club, where we received all kinds of news and event photos. I also joined clubs related to classical music or classes I was taking and actively participated.

I also worked hard on decorating my mini-homepage. The most memorable moment was right after arriving in the US. Many friends and seniors/juniors secretly left messages in my guestbook, and I also left a message in English to a professor I respected, letting them know I had arrived safely. It was only a few days after arriving in the US that I borrowed a friend's library card, went to a nearby library, and used a computer there.

(A little later, I even found Clamp's Wish manga there!)

Not long after, blogs appeared. Some of you may know, some may not. But because of my poor eyesight, I preferred blogs to the cute mini-homepages. So, I also diligently ran one.

However, after a few years, all my friends on Cyworld became ghosts, and Cyworld went under. And most importantly, although I don't think it was hacking, when I logged in one day, my real name had been changed to someone else's name. I suspect this happened because the person started using my old Korean phone number.

Surprisingly, I still remember my Cyworld ID and password perfectly. So, I can log in anytime if it's ready. But as I mentioned, it's no longer my real name, and most importantly, when I checked after it was announced that the service was shutting down and that I should back up my data, I was greatly disappointed to find that all the virtual items I had painstakingly bought with Doto were gone.

But... now that I hear it's being revived, I'm a mixture of worry and excitement. As I mentioned earlier, there's no guarantee when the service will restart, but the mention that international users will be able to use it gives me a 2% glimmer of hope. Since my old account is messed up anyway, I plan to create a new one and start fresh.

But times have changed drastically between twenty years ago and now. If it doesn't meet my expectations, I'll boldly give up on Cyworld. It's no longer the era where you can't do anything if you don't use Cyworld. We already have durumis and countless other SNS platforms.

So, I'm going to wait calmly without worrying too much. I'm sure the developers want to approach consumers with a more stable and trustworthy service, so I'll wait patiently, thinking it will probably be ready this year.

If the service is officially resumed and I can use it, I'll post an update here.