SEOUL — Several months ago, Ko Byoung Sam, 27, quit his job after nine years at Samsung Group to join a "dot-com" start-up.
The result: His future is less secure, the job less prestigious, his family enjoys fewer benefits and work is more chaotic. But he gets stock options, has far more responsibility and a chance to strike it rich if the company takes off.
"You have to change with the times," he said. "I wanted to take more of a risk."
With Ko and thousands of young South Koreans like him at the vanguard, Asia's second-largest economy has embraced the Internet with a speed and enthusiasm matched by few countries anywhere--in some categories surpassing the United States.
In the process, a rapid shift of people, money and markets into the new economy is transforming South Korea's old conglomerate-led economy in ways that have long eluded government planners and blue-ribbon reform panels.
And the exuberant creativity and wealth of new jobs is showing up Japan, South Korea's powerful neighbor, economic rival and longtime model, which has been far slower to change.
In Seoul, the signs of change are everywhere. Billboards, subway ads and peel-off stickers on lampposts promote a flood of new start-ups. Old companies struggle to keep employees as entire departments flee to dot-coms.
The online auction, stock trading, banking and game software industries are exploding. Government agencies trip over each other to build infrastructure and pass venture-friendly regulations.
Foreign venture-capital firms descend on Seoul waving fists of cash even as South Korean start-ups spread their tentacles into China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Behind the buzz are a number of impressive statistics. South Korean investment in information and telecommunications surpassed China last year and is on track to overtake Germany, France and Italy this year.
Internet use has spiked 50% in just the last six months to number 15 million people. South Korea now is second only to the U.S. in the number of domain names registered each year. And in online stock trading, it suddenly leads the world.
One reason for the rapid spread of the Internet in South Korea may be a particular home-grown innovation known as the "PC bang," a local colloquialism for public-access computer rooms. At least 15,000 of these service centers blanket the country, up from just 100 in 1998, bringing high-speed access to your average Kim for as little as $1 an hour.
