[4] Members cultivate relationships by forming Ilchon (Korean: 일촌, Hanja: 一寸) or "friendships" with each other through their minihompy.

Avatars and "mini-rooms"[5] (small, decoratable, apartment-like spaces in an isometric projection)[6] are features of the service, which can make for a Sims-like experience.

[5] Cyworld is a rough equivalent to Myspace of the United States,[8] with the main difference being that revenue is generated through the sale of dotori (Korean: 도토리), or acorns,[9] which can be used to purchase virtual goods,[6] such as background music, pixelated furniture, and virtual appliances.

The club members got the idea to create a social networking website while discussing topics for a research project.

[16] In the summer of 2002, Cyworld launched the "minihomepy" project, a last chance to turn things around before the business had to shut down.

[18] Offering many methods of expressing oneself, the minihomepy had features such as a main picture, history, user profile, photo story, story room, background music, photo album, diary, bulletin board, video clips, and decorating links.

One of the main reasons for minihomepy's success was people's dissatisfaction with the "individual homepages" that were prevalent in Korea at the time.

Minihomepies had components like visitor logs and comments, which provided a means of contact, while features such as the diary and bulletin boards allowed for individual expression; it was amicably received by the public.

[20] Cyworld gained further success when in November 2002, its competitor Freechal (another networking site for online communities) decided to charge its users 3,000 won per month.

This "pay-or-shut-down" policy prompted a horde of members to cancel their subscriptions and move to other free online community hosts, including Cyworld.

[21] In August 2003, Cyworld merged with SK Telecom, a Korean communication company and owner of the domain Nate.

[22] The rapidly increasing number of subscribers was getting too difficult for Cyworld to manage on its own, and SK promised resources for further growth in the market.

Although it was incorporated into the SK community department, Cyworld retained its brand name, service, and independence.

[24] Cyworld's success grew even further when it began to collaborate with Nate-on, the largest online messenger service in Korea and also owned by SK.

The collaboration was established in 2005, allowing Cyworld and Nate-on members to use both services simultaneously by logging into just one site.

[29] The introduction of smartphones to the market was also a key factor in Cyworld's decline, as both Facebook and Twitter offered stronger interconnectivity with mobile platforms.

Though SK communications insisted that the resident registration numbers and passwords were encrypted and are not likely to be abused even in the hands of the hackers, nobody gave the company the benefit of the doubt.

[33] SK Telecom took measures trying to minimize the harm, but it was soon flooded with lawsuits demanding compensation for the leakage.

[34] In September 2012, SK Telecom announced its decision to allow membership for Cyworld without obligating members to register resident registration numbers and real names.

A minimum amount of personal information, such as email address and nationality, would be asked of future members.

[35] Cyworld brought an end to its minihompy service on 31 September 2015 and had announced plans to change over to a new platform named Cyhome.

CyworldZ has acquired user data from SK and geared up to jump into the market with its metaverse-powered service.

[10] In 2006 Cyworld entered a joint venture with a German Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, T-Online,[40] and launched its European version a year later.

[41] Strong competition from site like StudiVZ and Skyrock, as well as a saturated market made for dismal future prospects, and by 2008 Cyworld had closed all operations.

[44] Ilchon is originally a Korean word that denotes very close familial relations, such as between a parent and a child.

Until Twitter and Facebook came out, the Il-Chon system was one of the most popular online social networking tools in Korea.

Cyworld blogs permit anyone to access its contents, but the user can make it function as another version of minihomepy and allow it only viewable by ilchons.

Daily news briefing service application[49] Cyworld has exerted significant influence on Korea's Internet culture.

[50] Minihompies succeeded in functioning as social platforms through which users could express their personal traits and private thoughts.