Online marketing is a way to use Web-based channels to spread messages and advertisements about company brands, products, or services to people. It has the advantage of low cost, easy measurement and analysis, and an ability to reach many customers. Also, there are various types of online marketing such as email, social media, video, blog, and many more. Until about two or three years ago, online marketing was not used as such a widespread or lucrative system. How and what made online marketing so popular?

To understand more about online marketing, I interviewed Benjamin Heo, founder of a stock company and a peer-to-peer application called ‘I Am Brand’. He was running a real estate business and created a stock company to move to an IT platform.
According to Heo, mobile marketing was made relatively recently but is showing tremendous growth. Also, online marketing has become one of the most popular choices for new entrepreneurs these days. Few years ago, owning a chicken restaurant was the first choice of Koreans who sought entrepreneurship. Heo said new business owners choose online marketing because the entrance barrier is very low. Many websites can create online shopping platforms easily or sell products by simply logging in. However, the online marketing competition rate is very high because of the low entrance barrier, which means it is easy for businesses to fail. Nonetheless, popular platforms like Carrot Market in Korea have been so successful that they have recently received an investment of 50 billion won.

Heo believes that online marketing platform businesses need subscribers rather than just profit margins because present-day platforms use big data to collect large amounts of data and analyze results and information.

However, it is important to receive investment and increase subscribers because it is very difficult to be popular, increase the value of the company, or make a lot of sales without investments.
According to Heo, the essential element of starting an online market was courage because moving online meant putting down everything he had been doing and starting a new challenge.

To learn some differences between different types of marketing and economy, I invited Youngjae Jung for an interview. Jung is a director of an economic and IT company called JN. He creates holograms, VR content, and e-commerce, which is transaction behavior in virtual space using an independent system. He has been working in the IT sector for about 12 years. At first, he was interested in computers, games, and the Internet, so he started working with others with similar interests, which ultimately became his career.

Jung said IT doesn’t need to follow a defined or repeating guide because people create something from their imagination, and he gained confidence by working on it one by one. 
He says he loves work so much that he feels IT is interesting and fun even though he works every day.
The design team does the 3D modeling, animation, and rendering; the video team does filming or editing; and the development team does programming, homepage making and more.

According to my interview with Jung, one disadvantage is that things don't go well if he and his co-workers don't communicate properly, and there's a risk that one person's mistake can't be resolved immediately and will grow more significant because many people are working together.

Jung stressed that if someone wants to work in IT, he/she needs to set a clear direction and make steady efforts while maintaining the initiative to do well. 

Currently, there are many ways to learn such as books, academies, and the Internet. However, working in IT requires a lot of effort, so unless that person really likes it, he/she must consider the career seriously before taking up an IT-related profession.

Online marketing and making a brand has become easier and there is a chance of big success; therefore, more and more people are trying. In the case of IT, people work with others and have a wide variety of fields to choose their careers from.
Many say that people will lose their jobs because of robots and the third industrial revolution. However, new jobs and systems are emerging, including online marketing. They are still developing, so it remains to be seen what changes these will bring.

Hayeon Shin
Middle School (8th Grade)
Saint Johnsbury Academy Jeju