Wonder Girls In Foreign Newspapers

Keywords and phrases ranked by search firms
By Sung So-young @ JoongAng Daily

Web portals Paran and Yahoo! Korea announced yesterday the 10 most searched words or phrases of the year.

Yahoo! Korea ranked its searches by keywords, not phrases. That produced somewhat different results. In its top 10, four economy-related keywords made the list. They are exchange rate (No.1), Kospi (No. 3), real estate (No. 5) and gold prices (No. 9).

Five celebrities also made the list. Choi the actress was ranked second, while K-pop girl group Wonder Girls came in fourth. Chung Seon-hee, a comedian and the wife of the late actor Ahn, teen figure skater Kim Yu-na and K-pop boy band Big Bang ranked sixth, eighth and 10th, respectively.

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Tanking Stock Market Dims Star Power
By Kim Hyun-cheol @ Korea Times

What a difference time can make! Months ago, some big-name entertainers becamre stock-rich by purchasing a substantial share of companies whose listed value grew leaps and bounds. After months of a financial crisis, however, they are not as rich as they used to be.

Another entertainment legend, Lee Soo-man, founder and largest shareowner of SM Entertainment, also had to see his 26.8 percent of holdings in the agency nearly halved. In an 11-month period, SM’s share dipped from 2,765 won to 1,400 won.

The falling price of J.Tune, which dropped from nearly 4,500 won to 450 won in the last 12 months, dealt a 5.3-billion won loss to international star singer and actor Rain, who owns 13.6 percent of the agency’s shares, currently valued at 2.5 billion won.

In a series of staggering outcomes among celebrities, music producer Park Jin-young remained the nation’s No.1 stock-rich entertainer.

Park’s stake in JYP Entertainment also dropped from 11.9 billion won to 16.1 billion won, down 42.5 percent from earlier this year, but the fall is more moderate than for superstars like Bae, according to chaebul.com, a business portal.

JYP Entertainment posted notable growth last year, recording 9.7 billion won in sales and 860 million won in net income just six months into the wake of a mega hit of its girl group Wonder Girls, and their biggest hit number last year, “Tell Me.”

CREDIT to Kay @ wgjjang.wordpress.com. Keep reporter’s name in please^^