Korean Portal Daum Launches U.S. VoIP Service

SEOUL, South Korea — Daum Communications Corp., South Korea's second-largest Internet portal, said Wednesday (March 29) it has launched Internet-based telephony services in the U.S. through its American subsidiary Lycos Inc.

Daum said in a statement Lycos will provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in the U.S. Lycos will employ differentiated services in the market which has already been occupied by high-profile portal operators such as Time Warner's America Online, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay's Skype and EarthLink.

Lycos will focus on offering multimedia services such as telephony through messenger programs and other means, including free-of-charge telephony for calling from PCs to land lines and PCs to mobile phones, Daum said.

Daum acquired Lycos in 2004 in a bid to penetrate into the U.S. market.

In 2005, Daum posted sales of 437.42 billion won, a 56.4 percent rise over 2004's 279.66 billion won.