By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

Businesses in Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, are seeing the dark side of the Internet. Online rumors, often groundless or wrong, are perplexing businesses. Since they spread so fast and massively, companies have few measures to cope with them.

Rumors are often circulated about the personal lives of the owner families of conglomerates, who are at the center of public attention and have most of their lives revealed to the public. The heir of a top retailer group in the country, who was divorced from a popular actress a few years ago, is haunted by the rumor that he is marrying a top TV actress. Some even wrote on the Internet of their friends having attended the unpublicized wedding ceremony. A junior member of the Hyundai family, who married a popular TV anchorwoman, has been troubled by reported rumors that the couple had divorced secretly.

Businesses often ignore rumors related to the personal lives of the owner's family, but some target the business itself, especially so with consumer goods or services industries, which have close interaction with consumers in their daily lives.

A key phrase in the recent online witch hunt has been ``mad cow disease,'' and Lotte, which was the first discount chain to import U.S. beef last year, was hurt most.

The rumor said Lotte, which needs government permission to build Lotte World II, another theme park, plans to cooperate with the government by distributing the U.S. beef. The rumor even said the company was giving out free tickets to Lotte World, to lure teenagers who would otherwise attend the anti-U.S. beef candlelight vigil to their amusement park.

Some netizens believe Lotte is already using U.S. beef in its confectionery products or restaurants. A netizen at the Web portal Naver asked whether she would be okay after eating ice cream there, which could have been produced using U.S. beef by-products.

Some propose online that they should be boycotting the firm's products and services.

Lotte is trying to quell the rumors as quickly as it can. Lotte Mart posted on its Web site ``Lotte Mart is not selling U.S. beef now. The U.S. beef we sold had nothing to do with the recent U.S. beef scandal. It came from the stock of frozen beef that we imported in July and August last year when the beef market was open, which went through the government's quarantine and the customs procedures.''

Lotte Group's fast food cafeteria Lotteria is also actively promoting on its Web site that it is using Australian beef. However, its sales have already been hurt by the rumors.

Companies have been aware of the growing importance of online promotions, which are a useful tool to enhance corporate image and two-way communication, directly finding out the consumer's needs and complaints.

Major manufacturers have been operating blogs of their products, and some have launched cyber promotion teams to provide positive information about themselves on the Internet. They are also closely monitoring major portals and blogs to quickly cope with consumer complaints.

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr