The paper reviews various factors that helped and facilitated fast diffusion of broadband in Korea as it describes what made Korea a number one case for broadband Internet diffusion. It also discusses the impact of broadband diffusion on the development of the online advertising market.

This research delves into documenting and describing the path Korea has been through in terms of achieving a high penetration rate of broadband diffusion. The factors contributing to the diffusion consist of policy and market factors where the government and private sector are the main actors, respectively. Each factor is described separately, followed by a general description of the current status, a brief history of the diffusion process, and the characteristics of Korean's Internet usage pattern. The interaction of these various aspects has resulted in a boost in Internet penetration.

The paper also discusses the online advertising practices and market in Korea. Broadband is a necessary condition for advanced online advertising and advertising is a major revenue source for many media companies. With the expansion of broadband service in Korea, it was expected that online advertising would be one of the major sources of revenue to support various content services. However, this expectation was premature, with web site operators depending on the revenue coming from e-commerce in place of advertising. In this, the development of online advertising was too slow to be a major source of revenue for Internet services, at least until now, although the situation seems to be moving in a more optimistic direction.

Although the Korean progress is closely monitored by global industry leaders and policy makers, the authors emphasize that a specific country's pre-existing status has to be considered when a complex process such as the adoption of communication technology is analyzed as a model case.