On Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Summit, Hyun-Oh Yoo, a CEO of SK Communications based in Korea, spoke about his company's social network, Cyworld, which he said was the largest social networking site in the world. Started in Korea, the site has attracted many first time Internet users who are in their 20s.

As reported by GigaOm, Yoo stated that "Cyworld2 has 20 million subscribers in Korea, which is 40 percent of the total Korean population, as well as more than 3 million users in non-Korean countries."

"The site has 22 million unique visitors per month, 20 billion page views per month, and $300,000 in daily sales of digital items. He also said the site sells 6 million songs per month and has 100,000 videos uploads daily (bigger than the publicly reported YouTube numbers)."

What's fascinating about Cyworld, is that it's a little bit MySpace, a little bit iTunes, as well as a little bit YouTube. It might even be said that it's a little Second Life, and even Sims, as users set up a virtual room where their avatar lives. Users exchange real money for acorns to purchase wallpapers, clothes for their avatars, furnishings, background music, banners, fonts, and other decorations.

Because of this, the social network's business model is not only an ad-driven one, as many other social sites in the US are, but it also incorporates the selling of digital tools that enable users to enhance their personal spaces. This is something that Wallop, a beta social network and spinout company from Microsoft, has embraced as a business model also.

The corporate world has also embraced Cyworld, setting up worlds there to accompany product launches. For critics asking where's the successful business model in social networking, Cyworld might be the answer.

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