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South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

washingtonpost.com

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Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#2
It is strange that I think of this after reading this, but this seems to be the dystopian future scenario that freaked out the DOJ due to Microsoft bundling the IE browser with Windows. It is strange that this situation actually came about, but due to reasons of law, not due to Microsoft's own market clout.

Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#4
An example of a premature optimization and what not following standards can do.

Some more background http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEED and http://kanai.net/weblog/archive/2007/01/26/00h53m55s

There was some hope last presidential election cycle that this would become a topic for the new administration to tackle [1], but that candidate (Ahn Cheol-soo) lost the election and it seems to have fallen off the table for now.

1 - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/14/ahn_lab_internet_exp...

Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#5
post #2

It is strange that I think of this after reading this, but this seems to be the dystopian future scenario that freaked out the DOJ due to Microsoft bundling the IE browser with Windows. It is strange that this situation actually came about, but due to reasons of law, not due to Microsoft's own market clout.

It isn't strange, most monopolies are born out of bad government policies, not the market.

Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#6
post #3

Well that's a stupid law. Requiring people to use a specific product. That's never a good idea. Now if you don't mind I need to go renew my car insurance and sign up for health care.

You are free to us any browser. Only for purchases is IE needed because of ActiveX.

Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#8
post #2

It is strange that I think of this after reading this, but this seems to be the dystopian future scenario that freaked out the DOJ due to Microsoft bundling the IE browser with Windows. It is strange that this situation actually came about, but due to reasons of law, not due to Microsoft's own market clout.

It isn't strange, most monopolies are born out of bad government policies, not the market.

> It isn't strange, most monopolies are born out of bad government policies, not the market.

Citation needed. There are government mandated monopolies but you can also achieve a monopoly using purely free market tools and simply lock up all supply and/or distribution via aggressive investments.

You seem to imply government-induced monopolies > free market monopolies, but provide no evidence or even an argument that this is indeed true. You just state it as a universally recognized fact, when that is obviously not the case.

Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#9
post #3

Well that's a stupid law. Requiring people to use a specific product. That's never a good idea. Now if you don't mind I need to go renew my car insurance and sign up for health care.

But you can choose your insurance companies and plans. This would be like the government mandating that you have to use Aetna for health insurance.

Re: South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping

#10
I lived in South Korea for a while and this "security plugin" you have to install for IE is an absolute nightmare. Some sites even ask you to install a separate application to be able to perform transactions, only through IE of course...

Truth be told, I never actually managed to buy anything online when I was there. It's like everything was designed to keep me from buying. What didn't help was that I was on Visitor status, meaning you don't get your national ID, which is required on a vast number of SK sites. Without ID, you just become some kind of virtual hobo.

It's a shame considering the amazing infrastructure there is over there. Anyone who's ever visited SK websites will tell you how poorly put together they are, both technically and visually. I've rarely seen such disparity between the underlying infrastructure and its use anywhere else.

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