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| Type of site | Blog Host |
|---|---|
| Available in | Korean |
| Dissolved | 16 June 2023 (2023-06-16) |
| Owner | ZUM Internet [ko] |
| URL | http://www.egloos.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free Ended 13 March 2023 (2023-03-13) |
| Launched | 23 June 2003 (2003-06-23) |
| Current status | Dissolved |
Egloos (Korean: 이글루스) was a South Korean blog host, established in 2003. Its owner, SK Communications, claimed it to be a professional publishing system. The ISP acquired the service in 2006.
The name "Egloo" is derived from the word "igloo" and represented a personal online home for its users' lives.
Egloos's service ended on 16 June 2023 (2023-06-16), causing the website to dissolve. Following Egloos's dissolution, the website created a backup period for it's users. This allowed them to download their posts, attached images, and files from the website before they were permanently deleted from Egloos's servers. The backup period lasted from 16 June 2023 (2023-06-16) to 18 December 2023 (2023-12-18).
Users
The site was reported to have around 1 million users, but lost users to foreign blogging sites in 2009 due to concerns regarding the South Korean government's monitoring of its citizens' web-browsing behavior.
The Korea Times also stated this in their news article:
"Since April 1 (2009), the government mandated Internet users to make verifiable real-name registrations on all Web sites with more than 100,000 daily visitors, which means they have to submit their resident registration codes, the Korean equivalent of social security numbers."
Egloos' users were often Koreans with intensive IT-related interests. Korean users with interests in anime and manga were also featured throughout the website as well.
Valley system
Egloos used a unique, theme-based system called "valley", whereby bloggers can choose to adopt and publish their blog postings under pre-existing themes (valleys). Valleys can also be created by user demand. In 2012, Egloos hosted 29 valleys.
- Book Valley (light novels)
- Animation Valley (Anime)
- News criticism
- Egloos Valley
- Movie Valley
- History Valley
- World Valley
- Comic Valley (manga, manhwa, and American comics)
Censorship
The Blog allowed censorship of the posting censored by the site administrator under certain circumstances. However, Egloos users had complained about the fairness of the censoring process, as site administrators had been able to censor content based upon a request from anyone reading the blogs.
References
- "Our Company". SK Communications (in Korean and English). SK Communications. 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- "전문 블로그 이글루스, 15억에 네이트 품으로". Naver (in Korean). Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- Channy Yun (20 April 2005). "Egloos". KoreaCrunch. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- "얼음집, 싸이월드로 개조되는 거 아냐". OhmyNews (in Korean). 8 March 2006. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- Kim Tong-hyung (27 April 2009). "Google Avoids Regulations, Korean Portals Not So Lucky". The Korea Times (in English and Korean). Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
- 카카루. "카카루 씨, 아침입니다". carucaru.egloos.com. Retrieved 4 August 2017.