Korean cyber-soothsayers see boom, Osama's end in '02
( 2002-01-07 10:24 ) (7 )

You heard it here first: Osama bin Laden is going to be caught in January and die by June, the US economy will recover and World Cup host South Korea will not go far in soccer's premier event.

These predictions for 2002 are from South Korea's growing ranks of on-line fortune tellers, cyber soothsayers who fuse modern technology with shamanistic tradition in this Northeast Asian nation.

Auguries vary from prosaic predictions that co-hosting the World Cup will boost South Korea's tourist sector to the bizarre: Osama bin Laden will die in June.

But one safe forecast is that South Korea's more than $1.52 billion fortune-telling market will grow in these troubled times.

"It's like people praying at churches or at temples. People who feel insecure do that," said 22-year-old Woo Sook-kyong, a customer at a zodiac coffee shop, the latest trend in fortune-telling.

"People don't know about their future, and learn a potential path," she said.

Sahjoo (Zodiac) cafes, for those who want coffee while their tea leaves are being read, are flourishing near South Korean university campuses. Customers pay 10,000 won ($7.58) for a reading and 3,000 won for a cup of coffee.

"If they hear what they wanted to hear, they are satisfied. And if we tell them something different from what they were thinking, they change the original thoughts," said cafe owner and fortune teller Ahn Ki-hyun.

PEARL HARBOR, 9-11 LINK SEEN

One of the 62 fortune-tellers who divine financial markets at Ask Future (www.askfuture.com) explains the September 11 attacks on the United States based on the 60-year Sexagenary Cycle of the traditional Chinese calendar.

"We saw the September attacks in the US in 2001. The Pearl Harbour attack was in 1941," said Ask Future CEO Lee Soo.

"Neither ordinary Koreans nor Western people understand the relationship between 1941 and 2001. Both years have the same name in the Sexagenary Cycles," he said.

The 60-year cycle combines the positive "yang" and negative "yin" component of five basic elements + wood, fire, earth, metal and water + and the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

But Ask Future's 100,000 fee-paying members pay for forecasts, not after-the-fact explanations, and staff soothsayers have predictions for bin Laden.

"He must have gone to the dying area, southward + to Pakistan or Somalia. His life will be done in June," predicted Lee Soo.

"I think in January, in Solar calendar, Bin Laden will be caught," Lee Won-chang insisted.

POLITICIANS, PUNTERS AND PARENTS

Even as South Korea prides itself on being among the most "wired" countries in the world with the highest ratio of high-speed Internet subscriptions among OECD nations, the pull of tradition is strong.

But the easier access to the Internet has added a new dimension to the fortune-telling business: practitioners are going online, often in tie-ups with Internet start-ups.

Customers seek advice from shamans or fortune-tellers to ward off bad luck. Mothers like to know which college their children should apply to, or whether their children's prospective spouse is a good match.

Politicians secretly send their secretaries to see if backing a certain faction is the right move or whether they should run for the next election.

Businessmen want to know about market direction and oil prices.

Fortune Kingdom (www.fortunekingdom.co.kr) offers divining methods which range from Korea's traditional "Jom" palm and face reading, to joss sticks, to reading the I-ching, or Book of Changes, to readings of foreign tarot cards or horoscopes.

Fortune Kingdom customers can have a face-to-face reading or they can log on the Internet for a one-on-one session with any of 22 fortune-tellers. The rate is at least 30,000 won for offline service and 20,000 won for on-line readings.

CONFIDENCE BOOST

Phone companies have introduced services that allow mobile phones users to log onto fortune-telling Internet sites or download amulets.

Daum Communications, Korea's largest portal, said revenues in paid fortune-telling services grew 20 percent per month this year, despite overall stagnation in the content sector.

Daum, boasting more than 31 million registered users with its pages viewed 300 million times daily, takes in some 20 million won per day since it introduced the paid fortune-telling service.

Fortune Kingdom soothsayer Lee Won-chang, 31, describes his job as "playing the role of a guide and an adviser".

He said, "People need advice from an objective third person who can advise them and help understand themselves better."

Customers say listening to fortune-tellers gives them@confidence in their future.

"It's fun and isn't it amazing? Someone knows about my fate, and provides solutions to me, which makes me feel better," said 25-year-old Jeon Jin-woo.

Customers are not the only ones who are confident.

"On the basis of the pattern of Sexagenary Cycles of the past stock market, I can analyse the future of our stock market," says Lee Soo of Ask Future.

"It's pretty precise," he said.