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Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.[1] SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.[2] In 2007, U.S.

advertisers spent US $24.6 billion on Search engine marketing.[3] In Q2 2015, Google (73.7%) and the Yahoo/Bing (26.3%) partnership accounted for almost 100% of U.S.

search engine spend.[4] As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing.[5] Managing search campaigns is either done directly with the SEM vendor or through an SEM tool provider.

It may also be self-serve or through an advertising agency.

As of October 2016, Google leads the global search engine market with a market share of 89.3%.

Bing comes second with a market share of 4.36%, Yahoo comes third with a market share of 3.3%, and Chinese search engine Baidu is fourth globally with a share of about 0.68%.[6] As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 1990s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly.

Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered by Open Text[7] in 1996 and then Goto.com[8] in 1998.

Goto.com later changed its name[9] to Overture in 2001, was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing.

Google also began to offer advertisements on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program.

By 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be primary moneymakers[10] for search engines.

In a market dominated by Google, in 2009 Yahoo! and Microsoft announced the intention to forge an alliance.

The Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance eventually received approval from regulators in the US and Europe in February 2010.[11] Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged.

The term "Search engine marketing" was popularized by Danny Sullivan in 2001[12] to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals.

Search engine marketing uses at least five methods and metrics to optimize websites.[citation needed] Search engine marketing is a way to create and edit a website so that search engines rank it higher than other pages.

It should be also focused on keyword marketing or pay-per-click advertising (PPC).

The technology enables advertisers to bid on specific keywords or phrases and ensures ads appear with the results of search engines.

With the development of this system, the price is growing under a high level of competition.

Many advertisers prefer to expand their activities, including increasing search engines and adding more keywords.

The more advertisers are willing to pay for clicks, the higher the ranking for advertising, which leads to higher traffic.[15] PPC comes at a cost.

The higher position is likely to cost $5 for a given keyword, and $4.50 for a third location.

A third advertiser earns 10% less than the top advertiser while reducing traffic by 50%.[15] Investors must consider their return on investment when engaging in PPC campaigns.

Buying traffic via PPC will deliver a positive ROI when the total cost-per-click for a single conversion remains below the profit margin.

That way the amount of money spent to generate revenue is below the actual revenue generated.[16] A positive ROI is the outcome.

There are many reasons explaining why advertisers choose the SEM strategy.

First, creating a SEM account is easy and can build traffic quickly based on the degree of competition.

The shopper who uses the search engine to find information tends to trust and focus on the links showed in the results pages.

However, a large number of online sellers do not buy search engine optimization to obtain higher ranking lists of search results but prefer paid links.

A growing number of online publishers are allowing search engines such as Google to crawl content on their pages and place relevant ads on it.[17] From an online seller's point of view, this is an extension of the payment settlement and an additional incentive to invest in paid advertising projects.

Therefore, it is virtually impossible for advertisers with limited budgets to maintain the highest rankings in the increasingly competitive search market.

Google's Search engine marketing is one of the western world's marketing leaders, while its Search engine marketing is its biggest source of profit.[18] Google's search engine providers are clearly ahead of the Yahoo and Bing network.

The display of unknown search results is free, while advertisers are willing to pay for each click of the ad in the sponsored search results.

Paid inclusion involves a search engine company charging fees for the inclusion of a website in their results pages.

Also known as sponsored listings, paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies either in the main results area or as a separately identified advertising area.

The fee structure is both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator.

Typically, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage, which will automatically be catalogued on a regular basis.

However, some companies are experimenting with non-subscription based fee structures where purchased listings are displayed permanently.

A per-click fee may also apply.

Each search engine is different.

Some sites allow only paid inclusion, although these have had little success.

More frequently, many search engines, like Yahoo!,[19] mix paid inclusion (per-page and per-click fee) with results from web crawling.

Others, like Google (and as of 2006, Ask.com[20][21]), do not let webmasters pay to be in their search engine listing (advertisements are shown separately and labeled as such).

Some detractors of paid inclusion allege that it causes searches to return results based more on the economic standing of the interests of a web site, and less on the relevancy of that site to end-users.

Often the line between pay per click advertising and paid inclusion is debatable.

Some have lobbied for any paid listings to be labeled as an advertisement, while defenders insist they are not actually ads since the webmasters do not control the content of the listing, its ranking, or even whether it is shown to any users.

Another advantage of paid inclusion is that it allows site owners to specify particular schedules for crawling pages.

In the general case, one has no control as to when their page will be crawled or added to a search engine index.

Paid inclusion proves to be particularly useful for cases where pages are dynamically generated and frequently modified.

Paid inclusion is a Search engine marketing method in itself, but also a tool of search engine optimization since experts and firms can test out different approaches to improving ranking and see the results often within a couple of days, instead of waiting weeks or months.

Knowledge gained this way can be used to optimize other web pages, without paying the search engine company.

SEM is the wider discipline that incorporates SEO.

SEM includes both paid search results (using tools like Google Adwords or Bing Ads, formerly known as Microsoft adCenter) and organic search results (SEO).

SEM uses paid advertising with AdWords or Bing Ads, pay per click (particularly beneficial for local providers as it enables potential consumers to contact a company directly with one click), article submissions, advertising and making sure SEO has been done.

A keyword analysis is performed for both SEO and SEM, but not necessarily at the same time.

SEM and SEO both need to be monitored and updated frequently to reflect evolving best practices.

In some contexts, the term SEM is used exclusively to mean pay per click advertising,[2] particularly in the commercial advertising and marketing communities which have a vested interest in this narrow definition.

Such usage excludes the wider search marketing community that is engaged in other forms of SEM such as search engine optimization and search retargeting.

Creating the link between SEO and PPC represents an integral part of the SEM concept.

Sometimes, especially when separate teams work on SEO and PPC and the efforts are not synced, positive results of aligning their strategies can be lost.

The aim of both SEO and PPC is maximizing the visibility in search and thus, their actions to achieve it should be centrally coordinated.

Both teams can benefit from setting shared goals and combined metrics, evaluating data together to determine future strategy or discuss which of the tools works better to get the traffic for selected keywords in the national and local search results.

Thanks to this, the search visibility can be increased along with optimizing both conversions and costs.[22] Another part of SEM is social media marketing (SMM).

SMM is a type of marketing that involves exploiting social media to influence consumers that one company’s products and/or services are valuable.[23] Some of the latest theoretical advances include Search engine marketing management (SEMM).

SEMM relates to activities including SEO but focuses on return on investment (ROI) management instead of relevant traffic building (as is the case of mainstream SEO).

SEMM also integrates organic SEO, trying to achieve top ranking without using paid means to achieve it, and pay per click SEO.

For example, some of the attention is placed on the web page layout design and how content and information is displayed to the website visitor.

SEO & SEM are two pillars of one marketing job and they both run side by side to produce much better results than focusing on only one pillar.

Paid search advertising has not been without controversy and the issue of how search engines present advertising on their search result pages has been the target of a series of studies and reports[24][25][26] by Consumer Reports WebWatch.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a letter[27] in 2002 about the importance of disclosure of paid advertising on search engines, in response to a complaint from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group with ties to Ralph Nader.

Another ethical controversy associated with search marketing has been the issue of trademark infringement.

The debate as to whether third parties should have the right to bid on their competitors' brand names has been underway for years.

In 2009 Google changed their policy, which formerly prohibited these tactics, allowing 3rd parties to bid on branded terms as long as their landing page in fact provides information on the trademarked term.[28] Though the policy has been changed this continues to be a source of heated debate.[29] On April 24, 2012, many started to see that Google has started to penalize companies that are buying links for the purpose of passing off the rank.

The Google Update was called Penguin.

Since then, there have been several different Penguin/Panda updates rolled out by Google.

SEM has, however, nothing to do with link buying and focuses on organic SEO and PPC management.

As of October 20, 2014, Google had released three official revisions of their Penguin Update.

In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Lens.com, Inc.

v.

1-800 Contacts, Inc.

that online contact lens seller Lens.com did not commit trademark infringement when it purchased search advertisements using competitor 1-800 Contacts' federally registered 1800 CONTACTS trademark as a keyword.

In August 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against 1-800 Contacts alleging, among other things, that its trademark enforcement practices in the Search engine marketing space have unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the FTC Act.

1-800 Contacts has denied all wrongdoing and appeared before an FTC administrative law judge in April 2017.[30] AdWords is recognized as a web-based advertising utensil since it adopts keywords that can deliver adverts explicitly to web users looking for information in respect to a certain product or service.

It is flexible and provides customizable options like Ad Extensions, access to non-search sites, leveraging the display network to help increase brand awareness.

The project hinges on cost per click (CPC) pricing where the maximum cost per day for the campaign can be chosen, thus the payment of the service only applies if the advert has been clicked.

SEM companies have embarked on AdWords projects as a way to publicize their SEM and SEO services.

One of the most successful approaches to the strategy of this project was to focus on making sure that PPC advertising funds were prudently invested.

Moreover, SEM companies have described AdWords as a practical tool for increasing a consumer’s investment earnings on Internet advertising.

The use of conversion tracking and Google Analytics tools was deemed to be practical for presenting to clients the performance of their canvas from click to conversion.

AdWords project has enabled SEM companies to train their clients on the utensil and delivers better performance to the canvass.

The assistance of AdWord canvass could contribute to the growth of web traffic for a number of its consumer’s websites, by as much as 250% in only nine months.[31] Another way Search engine marketing is managed is by contextual advertising.

Here marketers place ads on other sites or portals that carry information relevant to their products so that the ads jump into the circle of vision of browsers who are seeking information from those sites.

A successful SEM plan is the approach to capture the relationships amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines.

Search engines were not important to some industries in the past, but over the past years the use of search engines for accessing information has become vital to increase business opportunities.[32] The use of SEM strategic tools for businesses such as tourism can attract potential consumers to view their products, but it could also pose various challenges.[33] These challenges could be the competition that companies face amongst their industry and other sources of information that could draw the attention of online consumers.[32] To assist the combat of challenges, the main objective for businesses applying SEM is to improve and maintain their ranking as high as possible on SERPs so that they can gain visibility.

Therefore, search engines are adjusting and developing algorithms and the shifting criteria by which web pages are ranked sequentially to combat against search engine misuse and spamming, and to supply the most relevant information to searchers.[32] This could enhance the relationship amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines by understanding the strategies of marketing to attract business.

Extracurricular (TV series)

Extracurricular (Korean: 인간수업; RR: Ingansueop; lit.

Human Class) is a South Korean television series directed by Kim Jin-min, starring Kim Dong-hee, Jung Da-bin, Park Ju-hyun, Nam Yoon-soo, Choi Min-soo, Park Hyuk-kwon and Kim Yeo-jin.

It was released on Netflix on April 29, 2020.[1][2] A top student who runs an illegal business is caught by one of his classmates who starts blackmailing him.

On April 22, 2019, Netflix announced through a press release that it would distribute a new Korean original series entitled Extracurricular and produced by Studio 329, confirming at the same time that the main cast would consist of Kim Dong-hee, Jung Da-bin, Park Joo-hyun, Nam Yoon-soo, Choi Min-soo, Park Hyuk-kwon and Kim Yeo-jin.[3][4] The series is written by Song Ji-na's son Jin Han-sae and directed by Kim Jin-min, whose wife Kim Yeo-jin is starring in the series.[5] Filming, which ended on August 6, 2019, mostly took place in Seoul.[6][7] On April 28, 2020, the press conference was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic, in presence of actors Kim Dong-hee, Jung Da-bin, Park Joo-hyun and Nam Yoon-soo, executive producer (and Studio 329's CEO) Yoon Shin-ae, and director Kim Jin-min.[8] The series being released a few months after the Nth room case opened, director Kim said that "the incident was so shocking that [he] felt frightened.

Extracurricular could become an opportunity to discuss this uncomfortable reality.

As a creator, [he] felt [he] had to deal with the issues of our society with more depth and responsibility."[9] On April 29, some of the cast and crew attended a special one-day class by Professors Kwon Il-yong (South Korea's first profiler), Park Mi-rang (a criminologist) and Seo Min-soo (from the Police Human Resources Development Institute), which was broadcast live on Netflix Korea's YouTube and V Live channels.

They discussed the reality of youth crime in society.[10] On March 19, 2020, Netflix Korea announced through Twitter that the series would be released on April 29.[11] On April 16, the official trailer was released.[12][13] John Serba of Decider said that "Extracurricular is good, funny stuff.

The debut episode's near-miss ending isn't entirely satisfying, but that's not likely to stop you from binging the crap out of this show."[14] The series has also "gained rave reviews for its clear depiction of the struggles of teenage students."[15]

White-label product

A White-label product is a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they had made it.[1][2] The name derives from the image of a white label on the packaging that can be filled in with the marketer's trade dress.

Its origins can be traced to vinyl records.[3] Before records were to be released to the public, often before official artwork was designed and printed, promotional copies were sent out in a white sleeve to DJs to solicit radio and nightclub play, in an effort to build hype and gauge public interest by the record labels, ultimately to better estimate manufacturing quantities.

This created a situation where certain respected or well-connected DJs would have exclusive copies of material, immediately increasing demand on certain big records.

White label production is often used for mass-produced generic products including electronics,[4] consumer products and software packages[5] such as DVD players, televisions, and web applications.

Some companies maintain a sub-brand for their goods, for example the same model of DVD player may be sold by Dixons as a Saisho and by Currys as a Matsui, which are brands exclusively used by those companies.[6] Some websites use white labels to enable a successful brand to offer a service without having to invest in creating the technology and infrastructure itself.

Many IT and modern marketing companies outsource or use white-label companies and services to provide specialist services without having to invest in developing their own product.

Digital Marketing companies like Conduit Digital provide white label services like Over-The-Top advertising (OTT), SEO, Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic Video, Programmatic Display and many more to other advertising agencies under a white-label package.

Most supermarket store brand products are provided by companies that sell to multiple supermarkets, changing only the labels.

In addition, some manufacturers create low-cost generic brand labels with only the name of the product ("Beer","Cola", etc.).

Richelieu Foods, for example, is a private label food manufacturing company producing frozen pizza, salad dressing, sauces, marinades, condiments, and deli salads for other companies, including Hy-Vee, Aldi, Save-A-Lot, Sam's Club,[7] Hannaford Brothers Co.,[8] BJ's Wholesale Club (Earth's Pride brand), and Shaw's Supermarkets (Culinary Circle brand).[8] Smaller banks sometimes outsource their credit card or check processing operations to larger banks, which issue and process the credit cards as white label cards, typically for a fee, allowing the smaller bank to brand the cards as their own without having to invest in the necessary infrastructure.

For example, Cuscal Limited provides white label card and transactional products to Credit Unions in Australia; Simple (formerly BankSimple) issues bank accounts and debit cards operated by The Bancorp Bank and BBVA Compass in the United States.[9] In Southern California, City National Bank is the largest check processor in that half of the state, because in addition to checks issued by its own customers, CNB processes checks for the customers of more than 60 smaller Southern California banks.

Many software companies offer white label software to agencies or other customers, including the possibility to resell the software under the customer’s brand.

This typically requires functionalities such as the adaptation of the software’s visual appearance, multi-customer management and automatic billing to the end-customers based on usage parameters.

Fivesquid.com

Fivesquid.com is a British-based freelance marketplace website where people can trade skills and services.[1] First launched in 2011, the website hosts a variety of services, from tech jobs like SEO specialist advice to bizarre things like having a man with a parrot produce a quick clip advertising a business.[1][2] Buyers of services are mainly start-up companies looking to save on business costs.[3] Fivesquid was originally launched in 2011.

Following its release, Theo Paphitis selected the company as a start-up company to watch as part of his Small Business Sunday competition.[4] Since the websites launch in 2011, it has been recognised by the media for some of the services people sell.

Service sellers have also included celebrity Kitty Brucknell, who previously performed on the UK version of The X Factor, offered to send you a voicemail for £5.[5] In March 2012, the website featured in a list of top 10 companies to emerge from the UK recession.

Fivesquid featured fifth on the list and was highlighted as the example for selling cheap online services.[1] Throughout the sites history, it has had some strange services offered.

In 2012, a entrepreneurial schoolboy from England offered his services as an online gaming bodyguard, at £5 per 30 minutes of gameplay.[6] After the website had been established a number of years, some began to question the services available on the site.

One example used by the London Standard was services that could manipulate social media popularity.[7] Others around the same time stated that many of the service providers are simply out to make extra revenue on top of their main income stream.[8] The Gadget Show picked the website as one of their top 3 places to buy gifts online.[9] Services sold via the website are referred to as "micro-jobs", due to the low prices and short completion time typically involved.

All micro-jobs fall within 4 payment structures of either £5, £10, £20 or £50.[10] Payment for services must be made upfront in order for the work to commence.

The money is sent to the sellers account however the buyer's purchase is protected with a service guarantee.[11] The service providers range from those practicing a hobby to small companies who are attempting to grow their client base.[12] At the completion stage of each project, Fivesquid take a 20% commission payment from the total value, before releasing the funds to the service provider.[13] Service providers' earnings are paid out by Fivesquid using PayPal.

As of June 2017[update], no other payment methods are available.[14] Resource Freelance marketplace websites

Pricesearcher

Pricesearcher is an independent e-commerce search engine launched in the UK in 2016 which helps shoppers find the best prices for products online.[1][2] It does not use the traditional Price Comparison Website (PCW) model adopted by comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket.com and search engines such as Google Shopping[3][4] where retailers pay to list their products for sale.[5] Since its inception, it has listed products from online retailers, without charging a listing fee or commission for sales.

Product search results are consequently unaffected by a retailer's marketing budget or lack thereof.

Shoppers are able to use the vertical search engine as a price-checking tool, to see whether the goods they find 'on sale' elsewhere are genuinely a good deal.

Pricesearcher began as a small, self-funded project by Samuel Dean[2] in 2011, with the aim of indexing all products available to buy online to give shoppers a clear picture.

Dean used Peopleperhour in the early days to find freelancers to work on the initial project.

Then in 2014, he recruited Raja Akhtar, a PHP specialist, and the two worked together in their spare time.

Akhtar is now Head of Web Development at Pricesearcher.

In 2015, they recruited a freelance DevOps engineer, Vlassios Rizopoulos,[6] to help speed up the product indexing process.

In 2017, Rizopoulos became Pricesearcher's Chief Technology Officer.[2] Their goal was to list a searched-for item in one view, from retailers, marketplaces, classified advertising sites, brands and shopping comparison sites.[2] As the product index increased, funding was sought.

In 2016, Pricesearcher was launched and received its first outside seed funding from private investors.

Retailers who joined the Pricesearcher search engine in their first year were Amazon,[3] Argos, IKEA, Mothercare, Currys, PC World, Dreams (bed retailer), Wilko, King of Shaves, JD Sports.

Many more have joined since.[3] In September 2018, Pricesearcher was selected to join the London Stock Exchange's capital-raising programme.[7] In October 2018, former Amazon UK Head of Pricing Weldon W.

Whitener joined Pricesearcher as Chief Analytics officer.[8] In January 2019, Pricesearcher becomes a Google CSS Partner (Comparison Shopping Services)[9] In March 2019, Pi Datametrics and Pricesearcher Launched a Joint product for digital retailers "The first ever combining of organic search data and online product price data in a single report, PricePoint allows retailers to highlight where the winning pricing opportunities exist online, alongside organic visibility."[10] Pricesearcher enters a new partnership with latestdeals.co.uk where their technology is powering product search and product comparison for their consumers.[11] Latestdeals.co.uk is a uk website dedicated to the promotion of deals, vouchers, and freebies.

Pricesearcher went into Administration and on the 12th March 2020 Appointed Quantuma LLP [12] On the 20th March, Founder Samuel Dean and Jack Sundt formed a new business, Pricesearcher Technology Group Ltd [13] Pricesearcher uses PriceBot, its custom web crawler, to search the web for prices, and it allows direct product feeds from retailers at no cost.[3] The search engine's rapid growth[3] has been attributed to its enabling technology: a retailer can upload their product feed in any format, without the need for further development.

Pricesearcher processes 1.5 billion prices every day and uses Amazon Web Services (AWS), to which it migrated in December 2016, to enable the high volume of data processing required.[14] The rest of the business uses algorithms, NLP, Machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence to organise all the data.

As of February 2018, Pricesearcher is processing 2,500 UK retailers through PriceBot.

A further 4,000 retailers are using product feeds to submit product information to the search engine.[2] In 2019, Pricesearcher launched a browser extension tool, compatible with Firefox and Chrome, which pops up on visited websites to let the user know if they product they are looking at, is listed anywhere else on the internet, for less.[15][16] Like Google’s web crawler, GoogleBot,[17] PriceBot identifies online retailers and crawls their websites looking for products that are being sold.

Retailers can submit their own websites for crawling by PriceBot.[3] Pricesearcher is free to use for both shoppers and retailers.

It operates like Google and indeed.com as a free-to-list search engine.

Future revenue will come from an Adwords-type advertising model; the most traditional advertising model for search engines[2] Data collected by Pricesearcher was presented at the Brighton SEO Conference in a presentation: "What we have learnt from indexing over half a billion products".[2] Using the first 500 million products, Pricesearcher found that the average length of a product title was 48 characters (including spaces).

Product descriptions averaged 522 characters, or 90 words.

44.9% included shipping costs.

40.2% did not provide dimensions such as size and colour.[2] Their research shows that many retailers could improve their product listings by using brand terms as product keywords, using GTINs and putting product attributes in separate fields.[18] Between December 2016 and September 2017, Pricesearcher recorded 4 billion price changes globally.

The country with the most price changes was the UK – one every six days.[2]

Fly Away

Fly Away or Flyaway may refer to:

Search advertising

In Internet marketing, Search advertising is a method of placing online advertisements on web pages that show results from search engine queries.

Through the same search-engine advertising services, ads can also be placed on Web pages with other published content.[1] Search advertisements are targeted to match key search terms (called keywords) entered on search engines.

This targeting ability has contributed to the attractiveness of Search advertising for advertisers.

Consumers will often use a search engine to identify and compare purchasing options immediately before making a purchasing decision.

The opportunity to present consumers with advertisements tailored to their immediate buying interests encourages consumers to click on search ads instead of unpaid search results, which are often less relevant.

For the online user, Sponsored Search Advertisement offers highly relevant search results which are based on the consumer’s own queries and, thus, they are considered less intrusive than banner advertisements or pop-ups advertising.

In addition, Sponsored Search Advertisement reduces online user search costs and increases the accessibility to useful information within a limited time frame.

Consequently, Sponsored Search Advertisement has become an important element of online users browsing and information searching experiences on the Web.

Search advertising is an alternative to SEO and SEM.

Web advertising before 1998 consisted of banner advertisements generally priced by the number of impressions delivered (i.e., Cost-Per-milli (CPM) pricing).

GoTo.com (renamed Overture in 2001, and acquired by Yahoo! in 2003) created the first sponsored search auction, and Google’s first sponsored search auction followed in 2002.[2] Search advertising is sold and delivered on the basis of keywords.

The user of a search engine enters keywords to make queries.

A keyword may consist of more than one word.[3] The user interested in the product or service searches using a specific keyword or search term which lets them interact with advertiser's website.

Search engines conduct running auctions to sell ads according to bids received for keywords and relative relevance of user keywords to ads in the inventory.

The keyword “home mortgage refinancing" is more expensive than one that is in less demand, such as “used bicycle tires.” Profit potential of the keywords also plays into bids for ads that advertisers want displayed when the keywords are searched by the user.

For example, "used book" may be a popular keyword but may have low profit potential and the advertiser bids will reflect that.

Search engines build indexes of Web pages using a Web crawler.

When the publisher of a Web page arranges with a search engine firm to have ads served up on that page, the search engine applies their indexing technology to associate the content of that page with keywords.

Those keywords are then fed into the same auctioning system that is used by advertisers to buy ads on both search engine results pages.

Advertising based on keywords in the surrounding content or context is referred to as Contextual advertising.

This is usually less profitable than Search advertising which is based on user intent expressed through their keywords.[citation needed] Advertisers can choose whether to buy ads on search result pages (Search advertising), published content pages (contextual advertising), or both.

Bids on the same keywords are usually higher in Search advertising than in contextual advertising.[citation needed] In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Lens.com, Inc.

v.

1-800 Contacts, Inc.

that online contact lens seller Lens.com did not commit trademark infringement when it purchased search advertisements using competitor 1-800 Contacts' federally registered 1800 CONTACTS trademark as a keyword.

In August 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against 1-800 Contacts alleging, among other things, that its Search advertising trademark enforcement practices have unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the FTC Act.

1-800 Contacts has denied all wrongdoing and is scheduled to appear before an FTC administrative law judge in April 2017.[4] Search advertising activities can be measured in five ways: CPM: Cost per thousand viewers was the original method used for pricing online advertisements.

CPM remains the most common method for pricing banner ads.

CTR: Click-through rates measure the number of times an ad is clicked as a percentage of views of the Web page on which the ad appears.

Banner ads have CTRs that are generally 0.5 percent or less.

In comparison, individual search engine ads can have CTRs of 10 percent, even though they appear alongside organic search results and competing paid search advertisements.[5] CPA: Cost per action quantifies costs for completing specified activities such as attracting a new customer or making a sale.

Affiliate networks operate on a CPA basis.

CPA systems function most effectively when sales cycles are short and easily tracked.

Longer sales cycles rely on exposure to multiple types of ads to create brand awareness and purchasing interest before a sale is made.

Longer sales cycles and sales requiring multiple customer contacts can be difficult to track, leading to a reluctance by publishers to participate in CPA programs beyond initial lead generation.

CPC: Cost per click tracks the cost of interacting with a client or potential client.

In traditional marketing, CPC is viewed as a one-way process of reaching target audiences through means such as direct mail, radio ads and television ads.

Search advertising provides opportunities for two-way contacts through web-based chat, Internet-based calls, call-back requests or mailing list sign-ups.

There are some guidelines to establish minimum acceptable counting procedure for clicks.

Each and every click has a life cycle which is known as click referral cycle.

It comprises four stages: Initiated click, Measured click, Received click and Resolved click.[6] TM: Total minutes is a metric being used by Nielsen/NetRatings to measure total time spent on a Web page rather than the number of Web page views.

On July 10, 2007, Nielsen announced that they would be relying on TM as their primary metric for measuring Web page popularity, due to changes in the way Web pages provide content through audio and video streaming and by refreshing the same page without totally reloading it.[7] Page refreshes are one aspect of Rich Internet Applications (RIA).

RIA technologies include AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and Microsoft Silverlight.

Methodological questions regarding the use of total minutes for Search advertising include how to account for Internet users that keep several browser windows open simultaneously, or who simply leave one window open unattended for long periods of time.

Another question involves tracking total minutes on HTML pages that are stateless and do therefore do not generate server-side data on the length of time that they are viewed.[8] Search engine advertisements are purchased on the basis of keywords.

Ad buyers engage in running actions for keywords, with popular keywords costing several dollars per click through.

Search engines use algorithms to determine the position of ads according to click through rates.

Ads with poor click through rates can be pushed down to the bottom of the first page of search results or onto subsequent pages.

Even though advertisers are only paying for click throughs, the algorithms assigning ad positions based on ad popularity provide incentives for optimizing keyword selection and other cost control measures.[9] Without cost control measures, it is possible for ad buyers to spend twenty five to fifty percent of their ad budget ineffectively.[5] Cost control measures can include:

Luxury goods

In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending.

Luxury goods are in contrast to necessity goods, where demand increases proportionally less than income.[1] Luxury goods is often used synonymously with superior goods.

The word "luxury" originated from the Latin word luxus, which means indulgence of the senses, regardless of cost.[2] A luxury good can be identified by comparing the demand for the good at one point in time against the demand for the good at a different point in time, with a different income level.

When income goes up, demand for Luxury goods goes up even more than income went up.

When income goes down, demand for Luxury goods go down even more than income went down.[3] For example, if income goes up 1%, and the demand for a product goes up 2%, then the product is a luxury good.

This contrasts with basic goods, for which demand stays the same or decreases only slightly as income goes down.[3] Luxury goods have high income elasticity of demand: as people become wealthier, they will buy proportionately more Luxury goods.

This also means, however, that should there be a decline in income its demand will drop more than proportionately.

Income elasticity of demand is not constant with respect to income, and may change sign at different levels of income.

That is to say, a luxury good may become a necessity good or even an inferior good at different income levels.

Some luxury products have been claimed to be examples of Veblen goods, with a positive price elasticity of demand: for example, making a perfume more expensive can increase its perceived value as a luxury good to such an extent that sales can go up, rather than down.

However, it is important to note that Veblen goods are not the same as Luxury goods in general.

Although the technical term luxury good is independent of the goods' quality, they are generally considered to be goods at the highest end of the market in terms of quality and price.

Classic Luxury goods include haute couture clothing, accessories, and luggage.[4] Many markets have a luxury segment including, for example, luxury versions of automobiles, yachts, wine, bottled water, coffee, tea, foods, watches, clothes, jewelry, and high fidelity sound equipment.[4] Luxuries may be services.

The hiring of full-time or live-in domestic servants is a luxury reflecting disparities of income.

Some financial services, especially in some brokerage houses, can be considered luxury services by default because persons in lower-income brackets generally do not use them.

Luxury goods often have special luxury packaging to differentiate the products from mainstream competitors.

Originally, Luxury goods were available only to the very wealthy and "aristocratic world of old money" that offered them a history of tradition, superior quality, along with a pampered buying experience.[5] Luxury goods have been transformed by a shift from custom-made (bespoke) works with exclusive distribution practices by specialized, quality-minded family-run and small businesses to a mass production of specialty branded goods by profit-focused large corporations and marketers.[5] The trend in modern luxury is simply a product or service that is marketed, packaged, and sold by global corporations that are focused "on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and, above all, profits."[5] Increasingly, luxury logos now available to all consumers at a premium price across the world including online.[6] The three dominant trends are the main factors that have accelerated the rapid growth of the industry, including the customer base and variations in the consumptions of different brands.[7] The three dominant trends in the global Luxury goods market are globalization, consolidation, and diversification.[8] Consolidation involves the growth of big companies and ownership of brands across many segments of luxury products.

Examples include LVMH, Richemont, and Kering, which dominate the market in areas ranging from luxury drinks to fashion and cosmetics.[9] Global consumer companies, such as Procter & Gamble, are also attracted to the industry, due to the difficulty of making a profit in the mass consumer goods market.[10] The customer base for various Luxury goods continue to be more culturally diversified, and this presents more unseen challenges and new opportunities to companies in this industry.[7] The Luxury goods market has been on an upward climb for many years.

Apart from the setback caused by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the industry has performed well, particularly in 2000.

In that year, the world Luxury goods market – which includes drinks, fashion, cosmetics, fragrances, watches, jewelry, luggage, handbags – was worth close to $170 billion and grew 7.9 percent.[11] The United States has been the largest regional market for Luxury goods and is estimated to continue to be the leading personal Luxury goods market in 2013, with a value of 62.5 billion euros.[12] The largest sector in this category was luxury drinks, including premium whisky, champagne, and cognac.

This sector was the only one that suffered a decline in value (-0.9 percent).[citation needed] The watches and jewelry section showed the strongest performance, growing in value by 23.3 percent, while the clothing and accessories section grew 11.6 percent between 1996 and 2000, to $32.8 billion.

North America is the largest regional market for Luxury goods.

The largest ten markets for Luxury goods account for 83 percent of overall sales, and include Japan, China, United States, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, and Switzerland.[citation needed] In 2012, China surpassed Japan as the world's largest luxury market.[13] China's luxury consumption accounts for over 25% of the global market.[14] The Economist Intelligence Unit published a report on the outlook for Luxury goods in Asia[15] which explores the trends and forecasts for the Luxury goods of China market across key markets in Asia.

In 2014, the luxury sector is expected to grow over the next 10 years because of 440 million consumers spending a total of 880 billion euros, or $1.2 trillion.[16] Though often verging on the meaningless in modern marketing, "luxury" remains a legitimate and current technical term in art history for objects that are especially highly decorated to very high standards and use expensive materials.

The term is especially used for medieval manuscripts to distinguish between practical working books for normal use, and fully illuminated manuscripts, that were often bound in treasure bindings with metalwork and jewels.

These are often much larger, with less text on each page and many illustrations, and if liturgical texts were originally usually kept on the altar or sacristy rather any library that the church or monastery who owned them may have had.

Secular luxury manuscripts were commissioned by the very wealthy and differed in the same ways from cheaper books.[citation needed] "Luxury" may be used for other applied arts where both utilitarian and luxury versions of the same types of objects were made.

This might cover metalwork, ceramics, glass, arms and armour, and a wide range of objects.

It is much less used for objects with no function beyond being an artwork: paintings, drawings and sculpture, even though the disparity in cost between an expensive and cheap work may have been as large.[citation needed] With increasing "democratization" of Luxury goods,[17] new product categories have been created within the luxury market, called "accessible luxury" or "mass luxury".

These are meant specifically for the middle class, which sometimes called the "aspiring class" in this context.

Because luxury has now diffused into the masses, defining the word has become more difficult.[18] Bringing up to the modern day the long and generally very unsuccessful history of sumptuary laws designed to curb excessive personal consumption, in February 2013, the Chinese government banned advertisements for Luxury goods on its official state radio and television channels.[19] Several manufactured products attain the status of "Luxury goods" due to their design, quality, durability or performance that are remarkably superior to the comparable substitutes.[20] Thus, virtually every category of goods available on the market today includes a subset of similar products whose "luxury" is marked by better-quality components and materials, solid construction, stylish appearance, increased durability, better performance, advanced features, and so on.

As such, these Luxury goods may retain or improve the basic functionality for which all items of a given category are originally designed.[citation needed] There are also goods that are perceived as luxurious by the public simply because they play a role of status symbols as such goods tend to signify the purchasing power of those who acquire them.[citation needed] These items, while not necessarily being better (in quality, performance, or appearance) than their less expensive substitutes, are purchased with the main purpose of displaying wealth or income of their owners.[citation needed] These kinds of goods are the objects of a socio-economic phenomenon called conspicuous consumption and commonly include luxury vehicles, watches, jewelry, designer clothing, yachts, as well as large residences, urban mansions, and country houses.[citation needed] The idea of a luxury brand is not necessarily a product or a price point, but a mindset where core values that are expressed by a brand are directly connected to the producer's dedication and alignment to perceptions of quality with its customers' values and aspirations.[21] Thus, it is these target customers, not the product, that make a luxury brand.[21] Brands that are considered luxury connect with their customers by communicating that they are the top of their class or considered the best in their field.[22] Furthermore, these brands must deliver - in some meaningful way - measurably better performance.[22] What consumers perceive as luxurious brands and products change over the years, but there appear to be three main drivers: (1) a high price, especially when compared to other brands within its segment; (2) limited supply, in that a brand may not need to be expensive, but it arguably should not be easily obtainable and contributing to the customers' feeling that they have something special; and (3) endorsement by celebrities, which can make a brand or particular products more appealing for consumers and thus more "luxurious" in their minds.[23] Two additional elements of luxury brands include special packaging and personalization.[23] These differentiating elements distance the brands from the mass market and thus provide them with a unique feeling and user experience as well as a special and memorable "luxury feel" for customers.[23] However, the concept of a luxury brand is now so popular that it is used in almost every retail, manufacturing, and service sector.[24] Moreover, new marketing concepts such as "mass-luxury" or "hyper luxury" further blur the definition of what is a luxury product, a luxury brand, or a luxury company.[24] Examples include LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), the largest luxury good producer in the world with over fifty brands, including Louis Vuitton, the brand with the world's first fashion designer label.[25] The LVMH group made a net profit of €8.1 billion on sales of €42.6 billion in 2017.

[26] Other market leaders[citation needed] include Richemont and Kering (previously named PPR).

A rather small group in comparison, the wealthy tend to be extremely influential.[citation needed] Once a brand gets an "endorsement" from members of this group, then the brand can be defined as a true "luxury" brand.

An example of different product lines in the same brand is found in the automotive industry, with "entry-level" cars marketed to younger, less wealthy consumers, and higher-cost models for older and more wealthy consumers.[citation needed] The advertising expenditure for the average luxury brand is 5-15% of sales revenue, or about 25% with the inclusion of other communications such as public relations, events and sponsorships.[27] Since the development of mass-market "luxury" brands in the 1800s, department stores dedicated to selling all major luxury brands have opened up in most major cities around the world.

Le Bon Marché in Paris, France is credited as one of the first of its kind.

In the United States, the development of luxury-oriented department stores not only changed the retail industry, but also ushered the idea of freedom through consumerism and a new opportunity for middle- and upper-class women.[28] Fashion brands within the Luxury goods market tend to be concentrated in exclusive or affluent districts of cities around the world.

These include:

Article marketing

Article marketing is a branch of content marketing.

It is a type of advertising in which companies write and distribute short articles to a range of outlets such as article banks, forums, and newsletter publishers.

Its main purpose is to gain a huge number of online audiences and boost the number of sales opportunities for products or services on websites.

Another main purpose of this kind of marketing is to build backlinks.

This type of marketing strategy can help marketers acquire new visitors and increase sales on their websites.

Article marketing is also one of the least costly ways to market a company.[1] There are many advantages of using Article marketing such as: While there are lots of advantages to using Article marketing, there are some downsides as well: Article marketing has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available.

Business provides the content to a newspaper, possibly on a timely topic such as an article on tax audits during tax season, and the newspaper may use the article and include the business's name and contact information.

Newspapers and other traditional media have limited budgets for gathering content and these articles may be used in the business section of the newspaper.

Traditional Article marketing is advertising a company’s article through the use of magazines, newspapers and any print media.

(Daniels, 2013).

This way of marketing has been going on for a really long time but it is still very much useful and still in style to this day.

It still produces results in offline establishments.

The method of doing the traditional Article marketing is very straightforward.

The company will choose a print media business they want to work with and discuss the conditions of the article they want to produce.

Once the article has been written, the print media will then print and publish it.

Both companies will benefit from this project.

The print media company will have content to print and the business will gain exposure for their products and/or services.

(Ekanem, 2015).

Internet Article marketing is used to promote the authors' expertise of their market, products or services online via article directories.

Article directories with good web page ranks receive a lot of site visitors and may be considered authority sites by search engines, leading to high traffic.

These directories then give PageRank to the author's website and in addition send traffic from readers.

Articles and article directories attract search engines because of their rich content.

This practice may have been effective in the past, however, changes in Google's algorithms over the years have negated the benefits one would have received from this practice.

Both Google's Webmaster Guidelines and comments by Google's Head of Webspam, Matt Cutts discouraged, if not outright prohibit, the strategy of using article directory marketing as a means to build backlinks.[2][3] Business Owners, Marketers and Entrepreneurs attempt to maximize the results of an article advertising campaign by submitting their articles to a number of article directories.

However, most of the major search engines filter duplicate content to stop the identical content material from being returned multiple times in a search engine results page.

Some marketers attempt to circumvent this filter by creating a number of variations of an article, known as article spinning.

By doing this, one article can theoretically acquire site visitors from a number of article directories.

Most forms of search engine optimization and internet marketing require a domain, internet hosting plan, and promoting budget.

However, Article marketing makes use of article directories as a free host and receives traffic by way of organic searches due to the listing's search engine authority.

The primary goal behind Article marketing is to get search engine traffic to the article so that the author can strengthen their authority and influence within their field, while also leveraging that traffic for their own site(s).

The key to Article marketing is that the author should be providing value with their articles, not just promoting their site, products or services.

Article marketing has changed as companies have moved from targeting article directories such as Ezinearticles.com or eHow.com, to micro-targeting small audiences using Facebook and Twitter.[4] Article marketing used to have a much broader target audience but companies have switched to more finite groups of consumers.[5] The change happened because companies found that improving article quality and targeting a better audience was much more effective.[6] Part of this is due to the face that, as of March 2017 the internet has over 3.74 billion users.[7] Having such a massive market makes it hard to find the right customers, which caused companies using Article marketing to shrink their scope and search for smaller audiences.

Article marketing is used to advertise cheaply.

It is common for articles to get picked up by search engines, which allows for additional attention to a companies website.[8] Article marketing is also very easy to perform and a great first step for a new business, which makes it very popular among small businesses.[5] Article marketing has become so popular that many websites now have articles which teach easy steps on how to write your own marketing article to gain views from the public.[5] Gaining views and attention to a website is important because websites gaining more traffic have a higher chance of getting purchases from the website according to statistics.

Even if a website does not sell as many products on the website, the traffic a company gains will make the website more valuable.

This will result in other companies seeking to pay for use of the website space for advertisements because of the larger amount of traffic the website receives.

Article marketing has also moved into phone and tablet applications also known as apps.

App advertising is a very effective form of advertising, Milton Brown performed a study that people were twice as likely to purchase on their mobile phone when they see a Snapchat (a prominent phone app) advertisement.[9] He also found that 92% of campaigns saw clear results after advertising on Snapchat.[9] Because of this rising popularity of cheap/free advertisement on Apps companies have backlashed on Article marketing since it is flooding applications.[10] Facebook started banning Article marketing and other types of free advertisements in 2018 by increasing their prices and forcing free article evaluations to be stopped.[10]

North Korean famine

The North Korean famine (Korean: 조선기근), also known as the Arduous March or the March of Suffering[5] (고난의 행군), was a period of mass starvation together with a general economic crisis from 1994 to 1998 in North Korea.[6] The famine stemmed from a variety of factors.

Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly.

A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis.

The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster.[5][6] Estimates of the death toll vary widely.

Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.[7][8] A 2011 U.S.

Census Bureau report estimated the number of excess deaths from 1993 to 2000 to be between 500,000 and 600,000.[9] The term "Arduous March", or "The March of Suffering" became a metaphor for the famine following a state propaganda campaign in 1993.

The Rodong Sinmun urged the North Korean citizenry to invoke the memory of a fable from Kim Il-sung's time as a commander of a small group of anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters.

The story, referred to as the Arduous March, is described as "fighting against thousands of enemies in 20 degrees below zero, braving through a heavy snowfall and starvation, the red flag fluttering in front of the rank."[10] As part of this state campaign, uses of words such as 'famine' and 'hunger' were banned because they implied government failure.

Citizens who said deaths were due to the famine could be in serious trouble with the authorities.[11] The great famine is known in North Korea by the officially mandated phrase konanŭi haenggun (The Arduous March).

It was one of the central events in the history of North Korea, and it forced the regime and its people to change in fundamental and unanticipated ways.[5] Only about 20% of North Korea's mountainous terrain is arable land.

Much of the land is only frost-free for six months, allowing only one crop per year.

The country has never been self-sufficient in food, and many experts considered it unrealistic to try to be.[12] Due to North Korea's terrain, farming is mainly concentrated among the flatlands of the four western coastal provinces.

This allows for a longer growing season, leveled land, substantial rainfall, and well-irrigated soil which permits the high cultivation of crops.

Along with western coastal provinces, fertile land also runs through the eastern seaboard provinces.

However interior provinces such as Chagang and Ryanggang are too mountainous, cold and do not supply adequate rainfall to support farming.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was embarking on political and economic reform.

It began demanding payment from North Korea for past and current aid – amounts North Korea could not repay.

By 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved, ending all aid and trade concessions, such as cheap oil.[7] Without Soviet aid, the flow of imports to the North Korean agricultural sector ended, and the government proved too inflexible to respond.[13] Energy imports fell by 75%.[14] The economy went into a downward spiral, with imports and exports falling in tandem.

Flooded coal mines required electricity to operate pumps, and the shortage of coal worsened the shortage of electricity.

Agriculture reliant on electrically-powered irrigation systems, artificial fertilizers and pesticides was hit particularly hard by the economic collapse.[15][16] Most North Koreans had experienced nutritional deprivation long before the mid-1990s.

The country had once been fed with a centrally planned economic system that overproduced food, had long ago reached the limits of its productive capacity, and could not respond effectively to exogenous shocks.[5] North Korea's state trading companies emerged as an alternative means of conducting foreign economic relations.

Over the past two decades, these state trading companies have become important conduits of funding for the regime, with a percentage of all revenues going "directly into Kim Jong-il's personal accounts ...

[which have been] used to secure and maintain the loyalty of the senior leadership."[17] The country soon instigated austerity measures, dubbed the "eat two meals a day" campaign.[18] These measures proved inadequate in stemming the economic decline.

According to Professor Hazel Smith of Cranfield University: ...

the methods of the past that had produced short-to medium-term gains might have continued producing further small economic benefits if the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc had remained and continued to supply oil, technology, and expertise.[19]Without the help from these countries, North Korea was unable to respond adequately to the coming famine.

For a time, China filled the gap left by the Soviet Union's collapse and propped up North Korea's food supply with significant aid.[20] By 1993, China was supplying North Korea with 77 percent of its fuel imports and 68 percent of its food imports.

Thus, North Korea replaced its dependence on the Soviet Union with dependence on China – with predictably dire consequences.

In 1993, China faced its own grain shortfalls and need for hard currency, and it sharply cut aid to North Korea.

In 1997, So Kwan-hui, the North Korean Minister of Agriculture, was accused of spying for the United States government and sabotaging North Korean agriculture on purpose, thus leading to the famine.[21] As a result, he was publicly executed by firing squad by the North Korean government.[22] The economic decline and failed policies provided the context for the famine, but the floods of the mid-1990s were the immediate cause.

The floods in July and August 1995 were described as being "of biblical proportions" by independent observers.[23] They were estimated to affect as much as 30 percent of the country.[24] As devastating floods ravaged the country in 1995, arable land, harvests, grain reserves, and social and economic infrastructure were destroyed.

The United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs reported that "between 30 July and 18 August 1995, torrential rains caused devastating floods in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

In one area, in Pyongsan county in North Hwanghae province, 877 mm of rain were recorded to have fallen in just seven hours, an intensity of precipitation unheard of in this area...

water flow in the engorged Amnoc River, which runs along the Korea/China border, was estimated at 4.8 billion tons over a 72 hour period.

Flooding of this magnitude had not been recorded in at least 70 years."[25] The major issues created by the floods were not only the destruction of crop lands and harvests, but also the loss of emergency grain reserves, because many of them were stored underground.

According to the United Nations, the floods of 1994 and 1995 destroyed around 1.5 million tons of grain reserves,[26] and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 1.2 million tons (or 12%) of grain production was lost in the 1995 flood.[27] There were further major floods in 1996 and a drought in 1997.[28] North Korea lost an estimated 85% of its power generation capacity due to flood damage to infrastructures such as hydropower plants, coal mines, and supply and transport facilities.[29] UN officials reported that the power shortage from 1995 to 1997 was not due to a shortage of oil, because only two out of a total of two dozen power stations were dependent on heavy fuel oil for power generation...

and these were supplied by KEDO (the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization).

About 70% of power generated in the DPRK came from hydropower sources, and the serious winter-spring droughts of 1996 and 1997 (and a breakdown on one of the Yalu River's large hydro turbines) created major shortages throughout the country at that time, severely cutting back railway transportation (which was almost entirely dependent on electric power), which in turn resulted in coal supply shortages to the coal-fueled power stations which supplied the remaining 20% of power in the country.[30] A 2008 study, however, found no variation in children's nutrition between counties that had experienced flooding and those that had not.[31] North Korea's vulnerability to the floods and famine was exacerbated by the failure of the public distribution system.[5] The regime refused to pursue policies that would have allowed food imports and distribution without discrimination to all regions of the country.[5] During the famine, urban working class of the cities and towns of the eastern provinces of the country was hit particularly hard.[32] The distribution of food reflected basic principles of stratification of the communist system.[33] Food was distributed to people according to their political standing and their degree of loyalty to the state.[34] The structure is as follows (the World Food Program considers 600 grams of cereal per day to be less than a "survival ration"): However, the extended period of food shortages put a strain on the system, and it spread the amount of available food allocations thinly across the groups, affecting 62% of the population who were entirely reliant on public distribution.

The system was feeding only 6% of the population by 1997.

The famine was also a result of the culmination of a long series of poor government decisions that accrued slowly over decades.[5] The attempt to follow a closed-economic model caused the regime to abandon the possibility of engaging in international markets and importing food and instead restrict demand such as carrying out "Let's eat two meals a day" campaign in 1991.[5] Attempts to increase exports and earn foreign exchange through the Najin Sonbong free trade zone in 1991 were unsuccessful - it was located in the most isolated part of North Korea and lacked a clear legal foundation for international business.[5] The North Korean government also missed the opportunity for the short-term option to borrow from abroad to finance food imports after having defaulted on foreign loans in the 1970s.[6] Inadequate medical supplies, water and environmental contamination, frequent power failures, and outdated training led to a health care crisis that added to the overall devastation.

According to a 1997 UNICEF delegation, hospitals were clean but wards were devoid of even the most rudimentary supplies and equipment; sphygmomanometers, thermometers, scales, kidney dishes, spatulas, IV giving sets, etc.

The mission saw numerous patients being treated with homemade beer bottle IV sets, clearly not sterile.

There was an absence of ORS (oral rehydration solution) and even the most basic drugs such as analgesics and antibiotics.[35] With the widespread destruction of harvests and food reserves, the majority of the population became desperate for food, including areas well established in food production.

In 1996, it was reported that people in "the so-called better-off parts of the country, were so hungry that they ate the maize cobs before the crop was fully developed."[36] This reduced expected production of an already ravaged harvest by 50%.[37] People everywhere were affected by the crisis, regardless of gender, affiliation or social class.

Child malnutrition, as indicated by severe underweight, was found at 3% in 1987, 14% in 1997 and 7% in 2002.[38] Songun is North Korea's "Military First" policy, which prioritizes the Korean People's Army in affairs of state and allocates national resources to the "army first".

Even though the armed forces were given priority for the distribution of food, this did not mean that they all received generous rations.[40] The army was supposed to find ways to grow food to feed itself and to develop industries that would permit it to purchase food and supplies from abroad.

The rations received by military personnel were very basic, and "ordinary soldiers of the million-strong army often remained hungry, as did their families, who did not receive preferential treatment simply because a son or daughter was serving in the armed forces."[41] Women suffered significantly due to the gendered structure of North Korean society, which deemed women responsible for obtaining food, water and fuel for their families, which often included extended families.[42] Simultaneously, women had the highest participation rate in the workforce of any country in the world, calculated at 89%.[43] Therefore, women had to remain in the workforce and obtain supplies for their families.

Pregnant and nursing women faced severe difficulties in staying healthy; maternal mortality rates increased to approximately 41 per 1000, while simple complications such as anemia, hemorrhage and premature birth became common due to vitamin deficiency.[44][45] It was estimated that the number of births declined by about 0.3 children per woman during that period.[8][46] Children, especially those under two years old, were most affected by both the famine and the poverty of the period.

The World Health Organization reported death rates for children at 93 out of every 1000, while those of infants were cited at 23 out of every 1000.[47] Undernourished mothers found it difficult to breast-feed.

No suitable alternative to the practice was available.

Infant formula was not produced locally, and only a small amount of it was imported.[36] The famine resulted in a population of homeless, migrant children known as Kotjebi.[48] The exact number of deaths during the acute phase of the crisis, from 1994 to 1998, is uncertain.

According to the researcher Andrei Lankov, both the extreme high and low ends of the estimates are considered inaccurate.[49] In 2001 and 2007, independent groups of researchers have estimated that between 600,000 and 1 million people, or 3 to 5 percent of the pre-crisis population, died due to starvation and hunger-related illness.[50][51] In 1998, US Congressional staffers who visited the country reported that: "Therefore, we gave a range of estimates, from 300,000 to 800,000 dying per year, peaking in 1997.

That would put the total number of deaths from the North Korean food shortage at between 900,000 and 2.4 million between 1995 and 1998".[52] W.

Courtland Robinson's team found 245,000 "excess" deaths (an elevated mortality rate as a result of premature death), 12 percent of the population in one affected region.

Taking those results as the upper limit and extrapolating across the entire North Korean population across the country's provinces produces an upper limit of 2,000,000 famine-related deaths.[53] Andrew Natsios and others estimated 2-3 million deaths.[54][7] According to research by the U.S.

Census Bureau in 2011, the likely range of excess deaths between 1993 and 2000 was between 500,000 and 600,000, and a total of 600,000 to 1,000,000 excess deaths from the year 1993 to the year 2008.[8][page needed][9] At the same time, the years of famine were also marked by a dramatic revival of illegal, private market activities.

Smuggling across the border boomed, and up to 250,000 North Koreans moved to China.[55] Amartya Sen had mentioned bad governance as one of the structural and economic problems which contributed to the famine, but it seems that the famine also led to widespread government corruption, which nearly resulted in the collapse of old government controls and regulations.[56] When fuel became scarce while demand for logistics rose, so-called servi-cha (Korean: 써비차; MR: ssŏbich'a, "service cars") operations formed, wherein an entrepreneur provides transportation to businesses, institutions and individuals without access to other means of transportation, while the car is formally owned by a legitimate enterprise or unit that also provides transportation permits.[57] The people of North Korea were becoming less reliant on their government and they came to trust the Kim family less.[56] With the desperation derived from famine and informal trade and commercialization, North Koreans developed their black market, and moreover, they were surviving by adapting.[58] Andrei Lankov has described the process as the "natural death of North Korean Stalinism".[59] The average official salary in 2011 was equivalent to $US2 per month while the actual monthly income seems to be around $US15 because most North Koreans earn money from illegal small businesses: trade, subsistence farming, and handicrafts.

The illegal economy is dominated by women because men have to attend their places of official work even though most of the factories are non-functioning.[60] Initial assistance to North Korea started as early as 1990, with small-scale support from religious groups in South Korea and assistance from UNICEF.[3] In August 1995, North Korea made an official request for humanitarian aid and the international community responded accordingly:[4] Beginning in 1996, the U.S.

also started shipping food aid to North Korea through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to combat the famine.

Shipments peaked in 1999 at nearly 600,000 tons making the U.S.

the largest foreign aid donor to the country at the time.

Under the Bush Administration, aid was drastically reduced year after year from 320,000 tons in 2001 to 28,000 tons in 2005.[61] The Bush Administration was criticized for using "food as a weapon" during talks over the North's nuclear weapons program, but insisted the U.S.

Agency for International Development (USAID) criteria were the same for all countries and the situation in North Korea had "improved significantly since its collapse in the mid-1990s." South Korea (before the Lee Myung-bak government) and China remained the largest donors of food aid to North Korea.

The U.S.

objects to this manner of donating food due to the North Korean state's refusal to allow donor representatives to supervise the distribution of their aid inside North Korea.[62] Such supervision would ensure that aid does not get seized and sold by well-connected elites or diverted to feed North Korea's large military.

In 2005, South Korea and China together provided almost 1 million tons of food aid, each contributing half.[63] Humanitarian aid from North Korea's neighbors has been cut off at times in order to provoke North Korea into resuming boycotted talks.

For example, South Korea decided to "postpone consideration" of 500,000 tons of rice for the North in 2006, but the idea of providing food as a clear incentive (as opposed to resuming "general humanitarian aid") has been avoided.[64] There have also been aid disruptions due to widespread theft of railway cars used by mainland China to deliver food relief.[65] North Korea has not yet resumed reliable self-sufficiency in food production and periodically it relies on external food aid from South Korea, China, the United States, Japan, the European Union and others.[66] In 2002, North Korea requested that food supplies no longer be delivered.[67] North Korea has made progress in improving food security since the 1990s, and now has in most years lower malnutrition levels than in some richer Asian countries.[66] In the mid-2000s, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that famine conditions were in imminent danger of returning to North Korea, and the government was reported to have mobilized millions of city-dwellers in order to help rice farmers.[68][69] In 2012, the WFP reported that food would be sent to North Korea as soon as possible.

The food would first be processed by a local processor and it would then be delivered directly to North Korean citizens.

Agricultural production increased from about 2.7 million metric tons in 1997 to 4.2 million metric tons in 2004.[62] In 2008, food shortages continued to be a problem in North Korea, although less so than in the mid to late 1990s.

Flooding in 2007 and reductions in food aid exacerbated the problem.[70] In 2011, during a visit to North Korea, former US President Jimmy Carter reported that one third of children in North Korea were malnourished and stunted in their growth because of a lack of food.

He also said that the North Korean government had reduced daily food intake from 5,900 to 2,900 kJ (1,400 to 700 kcal) in 2011.[71] Some scholars believed that North Korea was purposefully exaggerating the food shortage, aiming to receive additional food supplies for its planned mass-celebrations of Kim Il-sung's 100th birthday in 2012 by means of foreign aid.[72] Escaped North Koreans reported in September 2010 that starvation had returned to the nation.[73] North Korean pre-school children are reported to be an average of 3 to 4 cm (1.2 to 1.6 inches) shorter than South Koreans, which some researchers believe can only be explained by conditions of famine and malnutrition.[74] Most people only eat meat on public holidays, namely Kim Il-sung's and Kim Jong-il's birthdays.[75] One report by the Tokyo Shimbun in April 2012 claimed that since the death of Kim Jong-il in December 2011, around 20,000 people had starved to death in South Hwanghae Province.[76] Another report by the Japanese Asia Press agency in January 2013 claimed that in North and South Hwanghae provinces more than 10,000 people had died of famine.

Other international news agencies have begun circulating stories of cannibalism.[77] On the other hand, the WFP has reported malnutrition and food shortages, but not famine.[78] In 2016, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reported a steady decline in the infant mortality rate since 2008.[79] An academic analysis in 2016 found that the situation had greatly improved since the 1990s and that North Korea's levels of health and nutrition were on par with other developing countries.[80] In 2017, the analyst Andrei Lankov argued that previous predictions of a return to famine were unfounded, and that the days of starvation had long since passed.[81] A survey in 2017 found that the famine had skewed North Korea's demography, impacting particularly male babies.

Women aged 20–24 made up 4% of the population, while men in the same age group made up only 2.5%.[82] Chronic or recurrent malnutrition dropped from 28 percent in 2012 to 19 percent in 2017.[83] In June 2019, after a report made by the United Nations stated that North Korea had experienced the worst harvests in over a decade along with severe food shortages that affected 40% of North Korea's population, South Korea enacted a plan to provide US$8 million worth of food aid to North Korea.

The South Korean government's aid to North Korea is widely viewed as having a political agenda of improving inter-Korean relations, despite the South's government insistence on separating the aid from politics.[84] Analogous famines: General:

Cannibalization (marketing)

In marketing strategy, cannibalization refers to a reduction in sales volume, sales revenue, or market share of one product as a result of the introduction of a new product by the same producer.

In e-commerce, some companies intentionally cannibalize their retail sales through lower prices on their online product offerings.

More consumers than usual may buy the discounted products, especially if they'd previously been anchored to the retail prices.

Even though their in-store sales might decline, the company may see overall gains.

Another example of cannibalization occurs when a retailer discounts a particular product.

The tendency of consumers is to buy the discounted product rather than competing products with higher prices.

When the promotion event is over and prices return to normal, however, the effect will tend to disappear.

This temporary change in consumer behavior can be described as cannibalization, though scholars do not normally use the phrase "cannibalization" to denote such a phenomenon.

In project evaluation, the estimated profit generated from the new product must be reduced by the earnings on the lost sales.

Another common case of cannibalization is when companies, particularly retail companies, open sites too close to each other, in effect, competing for the same customers.

The potential for cannibalization is often discussed[1] when considering companies with many outlets in an area, such as Starbucks or McDonald's.

Cannibalization is an important issue in marketing strategy when an organization aims to carry out brand extension.

Normally, when a brand extension is carried out from one sub-category (e.g.

Marlboro) to another sub-category (e.g.

Marlboro Light), there is an eventuality of a part of the former's sales being taken away by the latter.

However, if the strategic intent of such an extension is to capture a larger market of a different market segment notwithstanding the potential loss of sales in an existing segment, the move to launch the new product can be termed as "cannibalization strategy".

In India, where the passenger-car segment is going up dramatically since the turn of this century, Maruti-Suzuki's launch of Suzuki Alto in the same sub-category as Maruti 800, which was the leader of the small-car segment to counter the competition from Hyundai is seen to be a classic case of cannibalization strategy.

A company engaging in corporate cannibalism is effectively competing against itself.

There are two main reasons companies do this.

Firstly, the company wants to increase its market share and is taking a gamble that introducing the new product will harm other competitors more than the company itself.

Secondly, the company may believe that the new product will sell better than the first, or will sell to a different sort of buyer.

For example, a company may manufacture cars, and later begin manufacturing trucks.

While both products appeal to the same general market (drivers) one may fit an individual's needs better than the other.

However, corporate cannibalism often has negative effects: the car manufacturer's customer base may begin buying trucks instead of cars, resulting in good truck sales, but not increasing the company's market share.

There may even be a decrease.

This is also called market cannibalization.

Finally, cannibalization is also referenced in the search engine optimization (SEO) industry; it is known as keyword cannibalization.

Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on a website specifically target the same content,[2] to the point where the search engine has a difficult time determining which page is most relevant for the search query, and thus might not necessarily promote the page one would want website visitors to see most.

Since the introduction of RankBrain into the algorithm during 2017, the issue of cannibal pages has become more prevalent, as Google is now using user interactions to decide what should rank highly (in addition to topical relevance), which has caused more fluctuation in the types of pages that rank for different types of queries [3].

While this may seem inherently negative, in the context of a carefully planned strategy, it can be effective, by ultimately growing the market, or better meeting consumer demands.

Cannibalization is a key consideration in product portfolio analysis.

For example, when Apple introduced the iPad, it took sales away from the original Macintosh, but ultimately led to an expanded market for consumer computing hardware.

To accurately determine the success of a new product it is important to understand the detriment its sales are having to older products in a company’s line up.

The danger is the new products are taking from old products made by the business instead of increasing market share by taking consumers from competing products made by different businesses.

A model was created in 2012 to gauge the change in sales.

It is Sales change for focal new model (at time t) = + change in demand for other models within same brand and category + change in demand for other brands within category + change in demand for other models within same brand in other categories + change in demand for other brands in other categories + primary demand (time is in weeks) (Van Heerde, Srinivasan, & Dekimpe, 2012).[4] This model needs to try and deal with three problems with accurately estimating the success of a new product.

Market volatility that means lots of new products entering and leaving the market making it harder to understand what specific product is affecting the market share.

Slowness of the market to react to new products that have been introduced, meaning that there has to be time scope allowing for seasonal changes and the consumers to act accordingly.

Correlated error structures may permeate the brand as not just one product will be effected so it is important to understand the scope of the commodity and see total impact.

The model tries to mitigate these areas of error that make older models less reliable.

There is also the danger in multi distribution channel cannibalization that it can lead to job insecurity and risk for the old channels when the new channels open up.

In the case of travel agencies; in the past nearly all travel groups relied on them as an intermediary for tourism, this meant face to face meetings to introduce the products or services that one group wishes to sell to the travelers.

In recent years with new technology the necessity of travel agencies has been declining, with people being able to connect to the businesses they need to travel directly and cheaper than going through the more conventional means (Buhalisa & Lawb, 2008).[5] Airlines and similar tourism focused companies instead push through marketing the populace towards using their website instead of booking with a tourism agency, this is because it’s cheaper to run and can be more convenient for the consumer.

So the update in technology has forced market cannibalization to cut the spending in certain business groups leading to job insecurity, decreased job satisfaction, job alienation and risk aversion (Díaza, Martín-Consuegraa, & Estebanc, 2015).[6] Cannibalization is a necessary evil in lot of cases.

As sales plateau and decline only to stabilize at a lower amount, it is important for business to innovate and experiment in order to create something new and cutting edge to maintain market share.

Strategic development is important for business and integral for moving forward.

Nitin Pangarkar said it is very important for businesses to maximize competitiveness with business strategy and cannibalization is part of this (Pangarkar, 2015).[7] Cannibalization of markets is competing with others success and self-cannibalization is competing with yourself.

As Steve Jobs said when he released the iPhone "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will" (Isaacson, 2011).[8] Even though there are dangers with cannibalization it has been very successful at pushing business innovation forward and identifying stagnant areas of a business.

The diversion of sales from one product to another or from the same product to a different product can adversely effect the overall sales of a business.

Wendy Lomax theorized that using a brand name and leverage of current users of a brand to push them into using a new product can be a large risk (Lomax, 1996[9]).

This is due to the damaging nature which a failed product would have on the preexisting parent product.

As sales dropped from the new product after it is no longer pushed there is no guarantee that sales will stabilize to the old product that was sacrificed for the current item.

One of the unavoidable risks is to the established product but for self-cannibalization and growth this is essential.

Apple cannibalized their own sales of the iPad when the iPhone 6 was released in September 2014 (Apple Corporation, 2014).[10] According to a Forbes article, shipment of iPads was down 23% since the announcement of the iPhone 6.

This is due to the new product (the iPhone) being large enough to have a lot of the features of the iPad without being as large making the iPad outdated and irrelevant (Marko, 2015).[11] While the iPhone shipped massive amounts of product, the iPad never recovered to its previous sales plateau.

Overall, this is a positive effect as turnover of new products allows company to get old users to spend money and keeps their products current which is very important in technology related fields.

This is still an example of Apple betting sales of the old product to get higher sales on a new product in this case it was a success.

Digital marketing

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.[1][2] Its development during the 1990s and 2000s, changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing.[3] As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life,[4] and as people increasingly use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops,[5][6] Digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace.

Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones.[7] The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates Digital marketing from online marketing.[8] The development of Digital marketing is inseparable from technology development.

One of the key points in the start of was in 1971, where Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email and his technology set the platform to allow people to send and receive files through different machines.[9] However, the more recognisable period as being the start of Digital marketing is 1990 as this was where the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites.

In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computer was already big enough to store huge volumes of customer information.

Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list broker.[10] These kinds of databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, thus transforming the relationship between buyer and seller.

However, the manual process was not as efficient.

In the 1990s, the term Digital marketing was first coined,.[11] With the debut of server/client architecture and the popularity of personal computers, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications became a significant factor in marketing technology.[12] Fierce competition forced vendors to include more service into their software, for example, marketing, sales and service applications.

Marketers were also able to own huge online customer data by eCRM software after the Internet was born.

Companies could update the data of customer needs and obtain the priorities of their experience.

This led to the first clickable banner ad being going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by AT&T and over the first four months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad.[13][14] In the 2000s, with increasing numbers of Internet users and the birth of iPhone, customers began searching products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company.[15] In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address.[16] These problems encouraged marketers to find new ways to integrate digital technology into market development.

In 2007, marketing automation was developed as a response to the ever evolving marketing climate.

Marketing automation is the process by which software is used to automate conventional marketing processes.[17] Marketing automation helped companies segment customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns, and provide personalized information for customers.[17] However, the speed of its adaptability to consumer devices was not fast enough.

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when[18][19] the proliferation of devices' capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth.[20] Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that Digital marketing was still growing.[21][22] With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in daily lives.

Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching product's information.

The change of customer behavior improved the diversification of marketing technology.[23] Digital marketing is also referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'.

The term Digital marketing has grown in popularity over time.

In the USA online marketing is still a popular term.

In Italy, Digital marketing is referred to as web marketing.

Worldwide Digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013.[24] Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spend at 48% growth in 2010.[25] An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concern of consumer privacy and data protection.[20] To engage customers retailers have shifted from the linear marketing approach of one-way communication to a value exchange model of mutual dialogue and benefit-sharing between provider and consumer.[26] Exchanges are more non-linear, free flowing, and both one-to-many or one-on-one.[6] The spread of information and awareness can occur across numerous channels, such as the blogosphere, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and a variety of other platforms.

Online communities and social networks allow individuals to easily create content and publicly publish their opinions, experiences, and thoughts and feelings about many topics and products, hyper-accelerating the diffusion of information.[27] The Nielsen Global Connected Commerce Survey conducted interviews in 26 countries to observe how consumers are using the Internet to make shopping decisions in stores and online.

Online shoppers are increasingly looking to purchase internationally, with over 50% in the study who purchased online in the last six months stating they bought from an overseas retailer.[28] Using an omni-channel strategy is becoming increasingly important for enterprises who must adapt to the changing expectations of consumers who want ever-more sophisticated offerings throughout the purchasing journey.

Omni-channel retailing involves analyzing consumer behavior from a broad perspective, and studying what influences buying habits.[29] Retailers are increasingly focusing on their online presence, including online shops that operate alongside existing store-based outlets.

The "endless aisle" within the retail space can lead consumers to purchase products online that fit their needs while retailers do not have to carry the inventory within the physical location of the store.

Solely Internet-based retailers are also entering the market; some are establishing corresponding store-based outlets to provide personal services, professional help, and tangible experiences with their products.[30] An omni-channel approach not only benefits consumers but also benefits business bottom line: Research suggests that customers spend more than double when purchasing through an omni-channel retailer as opposed to a single-channel retailer, and are often more loyal.

This could be due to the ease of purchase and the wider availability of products.[30] Customers are often researching online and then buying in stores and also browsing in stores and then searching for other options online.

Online customer research into products is particularly popular for higher-priced items as well as consumable goods like groceries and makeup.

Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to look up product information, compare prices, and search for deals and promotions.[26] There are a number of ways brands can use Digital marketing to benefit their marketing efforts.

The use of Digital marketing in the digital era not only allows for brands to market their products and services, but also allows for online customer support through 24/7 services to make customers feel supported and valued.

The use of social media interaction allows brands to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers as well as determining what media platforms work well for them.

As such, Digital marketing has become an increased advantage for brands and businesses.

It is now common for consumers to post feedback online through social media sources, blogs and websites on their experience with a product or brand.[31] It has become increasingly popular for businesses to use and encourage these conversations through their social media channels to have direct contact with the customers and manage the feedback they receive appropriately.

Word of mouth communications and peer-to-peer dialogue often have a greater effect on customers, since they are not sent directly from the company and are therefore not planned.

Customers are more likely to trust other customers’ experiences.[27] Examples can be that social media users share food products and meal experiences highlighting certain brands and franchises.

This was noted in a study on Instagram, where researchers observed that adolescent Instagram users' posted images of food-related experiences within their social networks, providing free advertising for the products.[32] It is increasingly advantageous for companies to use social media platforms to connect with their customers and create these dialogues and discussions.

The potential reach of social media is indicated by the fact that in 2015, each month the Facebook app had more than 126 million average unique users and YouTube had over 97 million average unique users.[33] A key objective is engaging Digital marketing customers and allowing them to interact with the brand through servicing and delivery of digital media.

Information is easy to access at a fast rate through the use of digital communications.

Users with access to the Internet can use many digital mediums, such as Facebook, YouTube, Forums, and Email etc.

Through Digital communications it creates a multi-communication channel where information can be quickly shared around the world by anyone without any regard to who they are.[36] Social segregation plays no part through social mediums due to lack of face to face communication and information being wide spread instead to a selective audience.

This interactive nature allows consumers create conversation in which the targeted audience is able to ask questions about the brand and get familiar with it which traditional forms of Marketing may not offer.[37] By using Internet platforms, businesses can create competitive advantage through various means.

To reach the maximum potential of Digital marketing, firms use social media as its main tool to create a channel of information.

Through this a business can create a system in which they are able to pinpoint behavioral patterns of clients and feedback on their needs.[38] This means of content has shown to have a larger impingement on those who have a long-standing relationship with the firm and with consumers who are relatively active social media users.

Relative to this, creating a social media page will further increase relation quality between new consumers and existing consumers as well as consistent brand reinforcement therefore improving brand awareness resulting in a possible rise for consumers up the Brand Awareness Pyramid.[39] Although there may be inconstancy with product images;[40] maintaining a successful social media presence requires a business to be consistent in interactions through creating a two way feed of information; firms consider their content based on the feedback received through this channel, this is a result of the environment being dynamic due to the global nature of the internet.[37] Effective use of Digital marketing can result in relatively lowered costs in relation to traditional means of marketing; Lowered external service costs, advertising costs, promotion costs, processing costs, interface design costs and control costs.[40] Brand awareness has been proven to work with more effectiveness in countries that are high in uncertainty avoidance, also these countries that have uncertainty avoidance; social media marketing works effectively.

Yet brands must be careful not to be excessive on the use of this type of marketing, as well as solely relying on it as it may have implications that could negatively harness their image.

Brands that represent themselves in an anthropomorphizing manner are more likely to succeed in situations where a brand is marketing to this demographic.

"Since social media use can enhance the knowledge of the brand and thus decrease the uncertainty, it is possible that people with high uncertainty avoidance, such as the French, will particularly appreciate the high social media interaction with an anthropomorphized brand." Moreover, digital platform provides an ease to the brand and its customers to interact directly and exchange their motives virtually.[41] One of the major changes that occurred in traditional marketing was the "emergence of Digital marketing" (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015), this led to the reinvention of marketing strategies in order to adapt to this major change in traditional marketing (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015).

As Digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the same features should be expected from Digital marketing developments and strategies.

This portion is an attempt to qualify or segregate the notable highlights existing and being used as of press time.[when?] To summarize, Pull Digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing content while Push Digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages without that content being actively sought by the recipients.

An important consideration today while deciding on a strategy is that the digital tools have democratized the promotional landscape.

The new digital era has enabled brands to selectively target their customers that may potentially be interested in their brand or based on previous browsing interests.

Businesses can now use social media to select the age range, location, gender and interests of whom they would like their targeted post to be seen by.

Furthermore, based on a customer's recent search history they can be ‘followed’ on the internet so they see advertisements from similar brands, products and services,[47] This allows businesses to target the specific customers that they know and feel will most benefit from their product or service, something that had limited capabilities up until the digital era.

Digital marketing activity is still growing across the world according to the headline global marketing index.

A study published in September 2018, found that global outlays on Digital marketing tactics are approaching $100 billion.[48] Digital media continues to rapidly grow; while the marketing budgets are expanding, traditional media is declining (World Economics, 2015).[49] Digital media helps brands reach consumers to engage with their product or service in a personalised way.

Five areas, which are outlined as current industry practices that are often ineffective are prioritizing clicks, balancing search and display, understanding mobiles, targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic, and cross-platform measurement (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Why these practices are ineffective and some ways around making these aspects effective are discussed surrounding the following points.

Prioritizing clicks refers to display click ads, although advantageous by being ‘simple, fast and inexpensive’ rates for display ads in 2016 is only 0.10 percent in the United States.

This means one in a thousand click ads are relevant therefore having little effect.

This displays that marketing companies should not just use click ads to evaluate the effectiveness of display advertisements (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Balancing search and display for digital display ads are important; marketers tend to look at the last search and attribute all of the effectiveness to this.

This, in turn, disregards other marketing efforts, which establish brand value within the consumers mind.

ComScore determined through drawing on data online, produced by over one hundred multichannel retailers that digital display marketing poses strengths when compared with or positioned alongside, paid search (Whiteside, 2016).[50] This is why it is advised that when someone clicks on a display ad the company opens a landing page, not its home page.

A landing page typically has something to draw the customer in to search beyond this page.

Things such as free offers that the consumer can obtain through giving the company contact information so that they can use retargeting communication strategies (Square2Marketing, 2012).[51] Commonly marketers see increased sales among people exposed to a search ad.

But the fact of how many people you can reach with a display campaign compared to a search campaign should be considered.

Multichannel retailers have an increased reach if the display is considered in synergy with search campaigns.

Overall both search and display aspects are valued as display campaigns build awareness for the brand so that more people are likely to click on these digital ads when running a search campaign (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Understanding Mobiles: Understanding mobile devices is a significant aspect of Digital marketing because smartphones and tablets are now responsible for 64% of the time US consumers are online (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Apps provide a big opportunity as well as challenge for the marketers because firstly the app needs to be downloaded and secondly the person needs to actually use it.

This may be difficult as ‘half the time spent on smartphone apps occurs on the individuals single most used app, and almost 85% of their time on the top four rated apps’ (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Mobile advertising can assist in achieving a variety of commercial objectives and it is effective due to taking over the entire screen, and voice or status is likely to be considered highly; although the message must not be seen or thought of as intrusive (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Disadvantages of digital media used on mobile devices also include limited creative capabilities, and reach.

Although there are many positive aspects including the users entitlement to select product information, digital media creating a flexible message platform and there is potential for direct selling (Belch & Belch, 2012).[52] Cross-platform measurement: The number of marketing channels continues to expand, as measurement practices are growing in complexity.

A cross-platform view must be used to unify audience measurement and media planning.

Market researchers need to understand how the Omni-channel affects consumer's behaviour, although when advertisements are on a consumer's device this does not get measured.

Significant aspects to cross-platform measurement involves deduplication and understanding that you have reached an incremental level with another platform, rather than delivering more impressions against people that have previously been reached (Whiteside, 2016).[50] An example is ‘ESPN and comScore partnered on Project Blueprint discovering the sports broadcaster achieved a 21% increase in unduplicated daily reach thanks to digital advertising’ (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Television and radio industries are the electronic media, which competes with digital and other technological advertising.

Yet television advertising is not directly competing with online digital advertising due to being able to cross platform with digital technology.

Radio also gains power through cross platforms, in online streaming content.

Television and radio continue to persuade and affect the audience, across multiple platforms (Fill, Hughes, & De Franceso, 2013).[53] Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic: Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic all are aspects used by marketers to help advocate digital advertising.

Cookies are a form of digital advertising, which are tracking tools within desktop devices; causing difficulty, with shortcomings including deletion by web browsers, the inability to sort between multiple users of a device, inaccurate estimates for unique visitors, overstating reach, understanding frequency, problems with ad servers, which cannot distinguish between when cookies have been deleted and when consumers have not previously been exposed to an ad.

Due to the inaccuracies influenced by cookies, demographics in the target market are low and vary (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Another element, which is affected within Digital marketing, is ‘viewabilty’ or whether the ad was actually seen by the consumer.

Many ads are not seen by a consumer and may never reach the right demographic segment.

Brand safety is another issue of whether or not the ad was produced in the context of being unethical or having offensive content.

Recognizing fraud when an ad is exposed is another challenge marketers face.

This relates to invalid traffic as premium sites are more effective at detecting fraudulent traffic, although non-premium sites are more so the problem (Whiteside, 2016).[50] Digital marketing Channels are systems based on the Internet that can create, accelerate, and transmit product value from producer to a consumer terminal, through digital networks.[54][55] Digital marketing is facilitated by multiple Digital marketing channels, As an advertiser one's core objective is to find channels which result in maximum two-way communication and a better overall ROI for the brand.

There are multiple Digital marketing channels available namely;[56] It is important for a firm to reach out to consumers and create a two-way communication model, as Digital marketing allows consumers to give back feed back to the firm on a community based site or straight directly to the firm via email.[30] Firms should seek this long term communication relationship by using multiple forms of channels and using promotional strategies related to their target consumer as well as word-of mouth marketing.[30] The ICC Code has integrated rules that apply to marketing communications using digital interactive media throughout the guidelines.

There is also an entirely updated section dealing with issues specific to digital interactive media techniques and platforms.

Code self-regulation on use of digital interactive media includes: Digital marketing planning is a term used in marketing management.

It describes the first stage of forming a Digital marketing strategy for the wider Digital marketing system.

The difference between digital and traditional marketing planning is that it uses digitally based communication tools and technology such as Social, Web, Mobile, Scannable Surface.[70][71] Nevertheless, both are aligned with the vision, the mission of the company and the overarching business strategy.[72] Using Dr Dave Chaffey's approach, the Digital marketing planning (DMP) has three main stages: Opportunity, Strategy and Action.

He suggests that any business looking to implement a successful Digital marketing strategy must structure their plan by looking at opportunity, strategy and action.

This generic strategic approach often has phases of situation review, goal setting, strategy formulation, resource allocation and monitoring.[72] To create an effective DMP, a business first needs to review the marketplace and set 'SMART' (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound) objectives.[73] They can set SMART objectives by reviewing the current benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the company and competitors.

It is pertinent that the analytics used for the KPIs be customised to the type, objectives, mission and vision of the company.[74][75] Companies can scan for marketing and sales opportunities by reviewing their own outreach as well as influencer outreach.

This means they have competitive advantage because they are able to analyse their co-marketers influence and brand associations.[76] To cease opportunity, the firm should summarize their current customers' personas and purchase journey from this they are able to deduce their Digital marketing capability.

This means they need to form a clear picture of where they are currently and how many resources they can allocate for their Digital marketing strategy i.e.

labour, time etc.

By summarizing the purchase journey, they can also recognise gaps and growth for future marketing opportunities that will either meet objectives or propose new objectives and increase profit.

To create a planned digital strategy, the company must review their digital proposition (what you are offering to consumers) and communicate it using digital customer targeting techniques.

So, they must define online value proposition (OVP), this means the company must express clearly what they are offering customers online e.g.

brand positioning.

The company should also (re)select target market segments and personas and define digital targeting approaches.

After doing this effectively, it is important to review the marketing mix for online options.

The marketing mix comprises the 4Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place.[77][78] Some academics have added three additional elements to the traditional 4Ps of marketing Process, Place and Physical appearance making it 7Ps of marketing.[79] The third and final stage requires the firm to set a budget and management systems; these must be measurable touchpoints, such as audience reached across all digital platforms.

Furthermore, marketers must ensure the budget and management systems are integrating the paid, owned and earned media of the company.[80] The Action and final stage of planning also requires the company to set in place measurable content creation e.g.

oral, visual or written online media.[81] After confirming the Digital marketing plan, a scheduled format of digital communications (e.g.

Gantt Chart) should be encoded throughout the internal operations of the company.

This ensures that all platforms used fall in line and complement each other for the succeeding stages of Digital marketing strategy.

One way marketers can reach out to consumers, and understand their thought process is through what is called an empathy map.

An empathy map is a four step process.

The first step is through asking questions that the consumer would be thinking in their demographic.

The second step is to describe the feelings that the consumer may be having.

The third step is to think about what the consumer would say in their situation.

The final step is to imagine what the consumer will try to do based on the other three steps.

This map is so marketing teams can put themselves in their target demographics shoes.[82] Web Analytics are also a very important way to understand consumers.

They show the habits that people have online for each website.[83] One particular form of these analytics is predictive analytics which helps marketers figure out what route consumers are on.

This uses the information gathered from other analytics, and then creates different predictions of what people will do so that companies can strategize on what to do next, according to the peoples trends.[84] The "sharing economy" refers to an economic pattern that aims to obtain a resource that is not fully utilized.[87] Nowadays, the sharing economy has had an unimagined effect on many traditional elements including labor, industry, and distribution system.[87] This effect is not negligible that some industries are obviously under threat.[87][88] The sharing economy is influencing the traditional marketing channels by changing the nature of some specific concept including ownership, assets, and recruitment.[88] Digital marketing channels and traditional marketing channels are similar in function that the value of the product or service is passed from the original producer to the end user by a kind of supply chain.[89] Digital marketing channels, however, consist of internet systems that create, promote, and deliver products or services from producer to consumer through digital networks.[90] Increasing changes to marketing channels has been a significant contributor to the expansion and growth of the sharing economy.[90] Such changes to marketing channels has prompted unprecedented and historic growth.[90] In addition to this typical approach, the built-in control, efficiency and low cost of Digital marketing channels is an essential features in the application of sharing economy.[89] Digital marketing channels within the sharing economy are typically divided into three domains including, e-mail, social media, and search engine marketing or SEM.[90] Other emerging Digital marketing channels, particularly branded mobile apps, have excelled in the sharing economy.[90] Branded mobile apps are created specifically to initiate engagement between customers and the company.This engagement is typically facilitated through entertainment, information, or market transaction.[90]

Web design

Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites.

The different areas of Web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardised code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization.

Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all.[1] The term "Web design" is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing markup.

Web design partially overlaps web engineering in the broader scope of web development.

Web designers are expected to have an awareness of usability and if their role involves creating markup then they are also expected to be up to date with web accessibility guidelines.

Although Web design has a fairly recent history.

It can be linked to other areas such as graphic design, user experience, and multimedia arts, but is more aptly seen from a technological standpoint.

It has become a large part of people's everyday lives.

It is hard to imagine the Internet without animated graphics, different styles of typography, background, and music.

In 1989, whilst working at CERN Tim Berners-Lee proposed to create a global hypertext project, which later became known as the World Wide Web.

During 1991 to 1993 the World Wide Web was born.

Text-only pages could be viewed using a simple line-mode browser.[2] In 1993 Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, created the Mosaic browser.

At the time there were multiple browsers, however the majority of them were Unix-based and naturally text heavy.

There had been no integrated approach to graphic design elements such as images or sounds.

The Mosaic browser broke this mould.[3] The W3C was created in October 1994 to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability."[4] This discouraged any one company from monopolizing a propriety browser and programming language, which could have altered the effect of the World Wide Web as a whole.

The W3C continues to set standards, which can today be seen with JavaScript and other languages.

In 1994 Andreessen formed Mosaic Communications Corp.

that later became known as Netscape Communications, the Netscape 0.9 browser.

Netscape created its own HTML tags without regard to the traditional standards process.

For example, Netscape 1.1 included tags for changing background colours and formatting text with tables on web pages.

Throughout 1996 to 1999 the browser wars began, as Microsoft and Netscape fought for ultimate browser dominance.

During this time there were many new technologies in the field, notably Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, and Dynamic HTML.

On the whole, the browser competition did lead to many positive creations and helped Web design evolve at a rapid pace.[5] In 1996, Microsoft released its first competitive browser, which was complete with its own features and HTML tags.

It was also the first browser to support style sheets, which at the time was seen as an obscure authoring technique and is today an important aspect of Web design.[5] The HTML markup for tables was originally intended for displaying tabular data.

However designers quickly realized the potential of using HTML tables for creating the complex, multi-column layouts that were otherwise not possible.

At this time, as design and good aesthetics seemed to take precedence over good mark-up structure, and little attention was paid to semantics and web accessibility.

HTML sites were limited in their design options, even more so with earlier versions of HTML.

To create complex designs, many Web designers had to use complicated table structures or even use blank spacer .GIF images to stop empty table cells from collapsing.[6] CSS was introduced in December 1996 by the W3C to support presentation and layout.

This allowed HTML code to be semantic rather than both semantic and presentational, and improved web accessibility, see tableless Web design.

In 1996, Flash (originally known as FutureSplash) was developed.

At the time, the Flash content development tool was relatively simple compared to now, using basic layout and drawing tools, a limited precursor to ActionScript, and a timeline, but it enabled Web designers to go beyond the point of HTML, animated GIFs and JavaScript.

However, because Flash required a plug-in, many web developers avoided using it for fear of limiting their market share due to lack of compatibility.

Instead, designers reverted to gif animations (if they didn't forego using motion graphics altogether) and JavaScript for widgets.

But the benefits of Flash made it popular enough among specific target markets to eventually work its way to the vast majority of browsers, and powerful enough to be used to develop entire sites.[6] During 1998 Netscape released Netscape Communicator code under an open source licence, enabling thousands of developers to participate in improving the software.

However, they decided to start from the beginning, which guided the development of the open source browser and soon expanded to a complete application platform.[5] The Web Standards Project was formed and promoted browser compliance with HTML and CSS standards by creating Acid1, Acid2, and Acid3 tests.

2000 was a big year for Microsoft.

Internet Explorer was released for Mac; this was significant as it was the first browser that fully supported HTML 4.01 and CSS 1, raising the bar in terms of standards compliance.

It was also the first browser to fully support the PNG image format.[5] During this time Netscape was sold to AOL and this was seen as Netscape's official loss to Microsoft in the browser wars.[5] Since the start of the 21st century the web has become more and more integrated into peoples lives.

As this has happened the technology of the web has also moved on.

There have also been significant changes in the way people use and access the web, and this has changed how sites are designed.

Since the end of the browsers wars[when?] new browsers have been released.

Many of these are open source meaning that they tend to have faster development and are more supportive of new standards.

The new options are considered by many[weasel words] to be better than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The W3C has released new standards for HTML (HTML5) and CSS (CSS3), as well as new JavaScript API's, each as a new but individual standard.[when?] While the term HTML5 is only used to refer to the new version of HTML and some of the JavaScript API's, it has become common to use it to refer to the entire suite of new standards (HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript).

Web designers use a variety of different tools depending on what part of the production process they are involved in.

These tools are updated over time by newer standards and software but the principles behind them remain the same.

Web designers use both vector and raster graphics editors to create web-formatted imagery or design prototypes.

Technologies used to create websites include W3C standards like HTML and CSS, which can be hand-coded or generated by WYSIWYG editing software.

Other tools Web designers might use include mark up validators[7] and other testing tools for usability and accessibility to ensure their websites meet web accessibility guidelines.[8] Marketing and communication design on a website may identify what works for its target market.

This can be an age group or particular strand of culture; thus the designer may understand the trends of its audience.

Designers may also understand the type of website they are designing, meaning, for example, that (B2B) business-to-business website design considerations might differ greatly from a consumer targeted website such as a retail or entertainment website.

Careful consideration might be made to ensure that the aesthetics or overall design of a site do not clash with the clarity and accuracy of the content or the ease of web navigation,[9] especially on a B2B website.

Designers may also consider the reputation of the owner or business the site is representing to make sure they are portrayed favourably.

User understanding of the content of a website often depends on user understanding of how the website works.

This is part of the user experience design.

User experience is related to layout, clear instructions and labeling on a website.

How well a user understands how they can interact on a site may also depend on the interactive design of the site.

If a user perceives the usefulness of the website, they are more likely to continue using it.

Users who are skilled and well versed with website use may find a more distinctive, yet less intuitive or less user-friendly website interface useful nonetheless.

However, users with less experience are less likely to see the advantages or usefulness of a less intuitive website interface.

This drives the trend for a more universal user experience and ease of access to accommodate as many users as possible regardless of user skill.[10] Much of the user experience design and interactive design are considered in the user interface design.

Advanced interactive functions may require plug-ins if not advanced coding language skills.

Choosing whether or not to use interactivity that requires plug-ins is a critical decision in user experience design.

If the plug-in doesn't come pre-installed with most browsers, there's a risk that the user will have neither the know how or the patience to install a plug-in just to access the content.

If the function requires advanced coding language skills, it may be too costly in either time or money to code compared to the amount of enhancement the function will add to the user experience.

There's also a risk that advanced interactivity may be incompatible with older browsers or hardware configurations.

Publishing a function that doesn't work reliably is potentially worse for the user experience than making no attempt.

It depends on the target audience if it's likely to be needed or worth any risks.

Part of the user interface design is affected by the quality of the page layout.

For example, a designer may consider whether the site's page layout should remain consistent on different pages when designing the layout.

Page pixel width may also be considered vital for aligning objects in the layout design.

The most popular fixed-width websites generally have the same set width to match the current most popular browser window, at the current most popular screen resolution, on the current most popular monitor size.

Most pages are also center-aligned for concerns of aesthetics on larger screens.

Fluid layouts increased in popularity around 2000 as an alternative to HTML-table-based layouts and grid-based design in both page layout design principle and in coding technique, but were very slow to be adopted.[note 1] This was due to considerations of screen reading devices and varying windows sizes which designers have no control over.

Accordingly, a design may be broken down into units (sidebars, content blocks, embedded advertising areas, navigation areas) that are sent to the browser and which will be fitted into the display window by the browser, as best it can.

As the browser does recognize the details of the reader's screen (window size, font size relative to window etc.) the browser can make user-specific layout adjustments to fluid layouts, but not fixed-width layouts.

Although such a display may often change the relative position of major content units, sidebars may be displaced below body text rather than to the side of it.

This is a more flexible display than a hard-coded grid-based layout that doesn't fit the device window.

In particular, the relative position of content blocks may change while leaving the content within the block unaffected.

This also minimizes the user's need to horizontally scroll the page.

Responsive Web design is a newer approach, based on CSS3, and a deeper level of per-device specification within the page's style sheet through an enhanced use of the CSS @media rule.

In March 2018 Google announced they would be rolling out mobile-first indexing.[11]Sites using responsive design are well placed to ensure they meet this new approach.

Web designers may choose to limit the variety of website typefaces to only a few which are of a similar style, instead of using a wide range of typefaces or type styles.

Most browsers recognize a specific number of safe fonts, which designers mainly use in order to avoid complications.

Font downloading was later included in the CSS3 fonts module and has since been implemented in Safari 3.1, Opera 10 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5.

This has subsequently increased interest in web typography, as well as the usage of font downloading.

Most site layouts incorporate negative space to break the text up into paragraphs and also avoid center-aligned text.[12] The page layout and user interface may also be affected by the use of motion graphics.

The choice of whether or not to use motion graphics may depend on the target market for the website.

Motion graphics may be expected or at least better received with an entertainment-oriented website.

However, a website target audience with a more serious or formal interest (such as business, community, or government) might find animations unnecessary and distracting if only for entertainment or decoration purposes.

This doesn't mean that more serious content couldn't be enhanced with animated or video presentations that is relevant to the content.

In either case, motion graphic design may make the difference between more effective visuals or distracting visuals.

Motion graphics that are not initiated by the site visitor can produce accessibility issues.

The World Wide Web consortium accessibility standards require that site visitors be able to disable the animations.[13] Website designers may consider it to be good practice to conform to standards.

This is usually done via a description specifying what the element is doing.

Failure to conform to standards may not make a website unusable or error prone, but standards can relate to the correct layout of pages for readability as well making sure coded elements are closed appropriately.

This includes errors in code, more organized layout for code, and making sure IDs and classes are identified properly.

Poorly-coded pages are sometimes colloquially called tag soup.

Validating via W3C[7] can only be done when a correct DOCTYPE declaration is made, which is used to highlight errors in code.

The system identifies the errors and areas that do not conform to Web design standards.

This information can then be corrected by the user.[14] There are two ways websites are generated: statically or dynamically.

A static website stores a unique file for every page of a static website.

Each time that page is requested, the same content is returned.

This content is created once, during the design of the website.

It is usually manually authored, although some sites use an automated creation process, similar to a dynamic website, whose results are stored long-term as completed pages.

These automatically-created static sites became more popular around 2015, with generators such as Jekyll and Adobe Muse.[15] The benefits of a static website are that they were simpler to host, as their server only needed to serve static content, not execute server-side scripts.

This required less server administration and had less chance of exposing security holes.

They could also serve pages more quickly, on low-cost server hardware.

These advantage became less important as cheap web hosting expanded to also offer dynamic features, and virtual servers offered high performance for short intervals at low cost.

Almost all websites have some static content, as supporting assets such as images and style sheets are usually static, even on a website with highly dynamic pages.

Dynamic websites are generated on the fly and use server-side technology to generate webpages.

They typically extract their content from one or more back-end databases: some are database queries across a relational database to query a catalogue or to summarise numeric information, others may use a document database such as MongoDB or NoSQL to store larger units of content, such as blog posts or wiki articles.

In the design process, dynamic pages are often mocked-up or wireframed using static pages.

The skillset needed to develop dynamic web pages is much broader than for a static pages, involving server-side and database coding as well as client-side interface design.

Even medium-sized dynamic projects are thus almost always a team effort.

When dynamic web pages first developed, they were typically coded directly in languages such as Perl, PHP or ASP.

Some of these, notably PHP and ASP, used a 'template' approach where a server-side page resembled the structure of the completed client-side page and data was inserted into places defined by 'tags'.

This was a quicker means of development than coding in a purely procedural coding language such as Perl.

Both of these approaches have now been supplanted for many websites by higher-level application-focused tools such as content management systems.

These build on top of general purpose coding platforms and assume that a website exists to offer content according to one of several well recognised models, such as a time-sequenced blog, a thematic magazine or news site, a wiki or a user forum.

These tools make the implementation of such a site very easy, and a purely organisational and design-based task, without requiring any coding.

Editing the content itself (as well as the template page) can be done both by means of the site itself, and with the use of third-party software.

The ability to edit all pages is provided only to a specific category of users (for example, administrators, or registered users).

In some cases, anonymous users are allowed to edit certain web content, which is less frequent (for example, on forums - adding messages).

An example of a site with an anonymous change is Wikipedia.

Usability experts, including Jakob Nielsen and Kyle Soucy, have often emphasised homepage design for website success and asserted that the homepage is the most important page on a website.[16][17][18][19] However practitioners into the 2000s were starting to find that a growing number of website traffic was bypassing the homepage, going directly to internal content pages through search engines, e-newsletters and RSS feeds.[20] Leading many practitioners to argue that homepages are less important than most people think.[21][22][23][24] Jared Spool argued in 2007 that a site's homepage was actually the least important page on a website.[25] In 2012 and 2013, carousels (also called 'sliders' and 'rotating banners') have become an extremely popular design element on homepages, often used to showcase featured or recent content in a confined space.[26][27] Many practitioners argue that carousels are an ineffective design element and hurt a website's search engine optimisation and usability.[27][28][29] There are two primary jobs involved in creating a website: the Web designer and web developer, who often work closely together on a website.[30] The Web designers are responsible for the visual aspect, which includes the layout, coloring and typography of a web page.

Web designers will also have a working knowledge of markup languages such as HTML and CSS, although the extent of their knowledge will differ from one Web designer to another.

Particularly in smaller organizations, one person will need the necessary skills for designing and programming the full web page, while larger organizations may have a Web designer responsible for the visual aspect alone.[31] Further jobs which may become involved in the creation of a website include:

Social bookmarking

Social bookmarking is an online service which allows users to add, annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents.[1][2] Many online bookmark management services have launched since 1996; Delicious, founded in 2003, popularized the terms "Social bookmarking" and "tagging".

Tagging is a significant feature of Social bookmarking systems, allowing users to organize their bookmarks and develop shared vocabularies known as folksonomies.

Unlike file sharing, Social bookmarking does not save the resources themselves, merely bookmarks that reference them, i.e.

a link to the bookmarked page.

Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata, so users may understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it for themselves.

Such descriptions may be free text comments, votes in favor of or against its quality, or tags that collectively or collaboratively become a folksonomy.

Folksonomy is also called social tagging, "the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content".[3] In a Social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share.

These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains.

The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags.

They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them.

Some Social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.

Many Social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags.

This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.

It also helps to promote your sites by networking with other social book markers and collaborating with each other.

As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.[4] The concept of shared online bookmarks is believed to have originated around April 1996 with the launch of itList,[5] the features of which included public and private bookmarks.[6] Another system known as WebTagger, developed by a team at the Computational Sciences Division at NASA, was presented at the Sixth International WWW Conference held in Santa Clara on April 7–11, 1997.

WebTagger included several advanced Social bookmarking features including the ability to collaboratively share and organize bookmarks using a web-based interface, provide comments and organize them according to categories.[7] Within the next three years, online bookmark services became competitive, with venture-backed companies such as Backflip, Blink, Clip2, ClickMarks, HotLinks, and others entering the market.[8][9] They provided folders for organizing bookmarks, and some services automatically sorted bookmarks into folders (with varying degrees of accuracy).[10] Blink included browser buttons for saving bookmarks;[11] Backflip enabled users to email their bookmarks to others[12] and displayed "Backflip this page" buttons on partner websites.[13] Lacking viable revenue models, this early generation of Social bookmarking companies failed as the dot-com bubble burst—Backflip closed citing "economic woes at the start of the 21st century".[14] In 2005, the founder of Blink said, "I don't think it was that we were 'too early' or that we got killed when the bubble burst.

I believe it all came down to product design, and to some very slight differences in approach."[15] Founded in 2003, Delicious (then called del.icio.us) pioneered tagging[16] and coined the term Social bookmarking.

Frassle, a blogging system released in November 2003, included Social bookmarking elements.[17] In 2004, as Delicious began to take off, similar services Furl, Simpy, Spurl.net, and unalog were released,[17] along with CiteULike and Connotea (sometimes called social citation services) and the related recommendation system Stumbleupon.

Also in 2004, the social photo sharing website Flickr was released, and inspired by Delicious it soon added a tagging feature.[18] In 2006, Ma.gnolia (later renamed to Gnolia), Blue Dot (later renamed to Faves), Mister Wong, and Diigo entered the bookmarking field, and Connectbeam included a Social bookmarking and tagging service aimed at businesses and enterprises.

In 2007, IBM released its Lotus Connections product.[19] In 2009, Pinboard launched as a bookmarking service with paid accounts.[20] As of 2012, Furl, Simpy, Spurl.net, Gnolia, Faves, and Connectbeam are no longer active services.

Digg was founded in 2004 with a related system for sharing and ranking social news,[21] followed by competitors Reddit in 2005[22] and Newsvine in 2006.[23] As of January 20, 2016, Reddit is now the 32nd highest ranking in the world and Digg is no longer a Social bookmarking platform and has dropped out of the top 1000.

A simple form of shared vocabularies does emerge in Social bookmarking systems (folksonomy).

Collaborative tagging exhibits a form of complex systems (or self-organizing) dynamics.[24] Although there is no central controlled vocabulary to constrain the actions of individual users, the distributions of tags that describe different resources have been shown to converge over time to stable power law distributions.[24] Once such stable distributions form, the correlations between different tags can be examined to construct simple folksonomy graphs, which can be efficiently partitioned to obtain a form of community or shared vocabularies.[25] While such vocabularies suffer from some of the informality problems described below, they can be seen as emerging from the decentralized actions of many users, as a form of crowdsourcing.

From the point of view of search data, there are drawbacks to such tag-based systems: no standard set of keywords (i.e., a folksonomy instead of a controlled vocabulary), no standard for the structure of such tags (e.g., singular vs.

plural, capitalization), mistagging due to spelling errors, tags that can have more than one meaning, unclear tags due to synonym/antonym confusion, unorthodox and personalized tag schemata from some users, and no mechanism for users to indicate hierarchical relationships between tags (e.g., a site might be labeled as both cheese and cheddar, with no mechanism that might indicate that cheddar is a refinement or sub-class of cheeses).

For individual users, Social bookmarking can be useful as a way to access a consolidated set of bookmarks from various computers, organize large numbers of bookmarks, and share bookmarks with contacts.

Institutions including businesses, libraries, and universities have used Social bookmarking as a way to increase information sharing among members.

Social bookmarking has been also used to improve web search.[26][27] Libraries have found Social bookmarking to be useful as an easy way to provide lists of informative links to patrons.[28] The University of Pennsylvania (UP) was one of the first library adopters with its PennTags.[29][30] Social bookmarking tools are an emerging educational technology that has been drawing more of educators' attention over the last several years.

This technology offers knowledge sharing solutions and a social platform for interactions and discussions.

These tools enable users to collaboratively underline, highlight, and annotate an electronic text, in addition to providing a mechanism to write additional comments on the margins of the electronic document.[31] For example, Delicious could be used in a course to provide an inexpensive answer to the question of rising course materials costs.[32] RISAL (Repository of Interactive Social Assets for Learning) is another Social bookmarking system used for supporting teaching and learning at the university level.[33] Social bookmarking tools have several purposes in an academic setting including: organizing and categorizing web pages for efficient retrieval; keeping tagged pages accessible from any networked computer; sharing needed or desired resources with other users; accessing tagged pages with RSS feeds, cell phones and PDAs for increased mobility; allowing librarians and instructors the capability to follow students' progress; and giving students another way to collaborate with each other and make collective discoveries.[34] One requirement unique to education is that resources often have one URL that describes the resource, with another for the actual learning content.

XtLearn.net[35] allows bookmarking of both in one step,[36] the relevant URL being delivered to either tutors or learners, depending on the delivery context.

It also demonstrates integration with traditional learning content repositories, such as Jorum, NLN, Intute and TES.[37] With regard to creating a good-quality search engine, a Social bookmarking system has several advantages over traditional automated resource location and classification software, such as search engine spiders.

All tag-based classification of Internet resources (such as web sites) is done by human beings, who understand the content of the resource, as opposed to software, which algorithmically attempts to determine the meaning and quality of a resource.

Also, people can find and bookmark web pages that have not yet been noticed or indexed by web spiders.[38] Additionally, a Social bookmarking system can rank a resource based on how many times it has been bookmarked by users, which may be a more useful metric for end-users than systems that rank resources based on the number of external links pointing to it.

However, both types of ranking are vulnerable to fraud, (see Gaming the system), and both need technical countermeasures to try to deal with this.

Social bookmarking is susceptible to corruption and collusion.[17] Due to its popularity, some have begun to use it as a tool to use along with search engine optimization to make their website more visible.

The more often a web page is submitted and tagged, the better chance it has of being found.

Spammers have started bookmarking the same web page multiple times and/or tagging each page of their web site using a lot of popular tags, obligating developers to constantly adjust their security system to overcome abuses.[39][40] Furthermore, since Social bookmarking generates backlinks, social bookmark link generating services are used by some webmasters in an attempt to improve their websites' rankings in search engine results pages.[41][42]

Incheon

Incheon (Korean: 인천; Hanja: 仁川; Korean pronunciation: [intɕʰʌn]; McCune-Reischauer romanization Inchŏn; literally "kind river"), officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시), is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi to the east.

Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883.

Today, about 3 million people live in the city, making it South Korea's third most-populous city after Seoul and Busan.

The city's growth has been assured in modern times with the development of its port due to its natural advantages as a coastal city and its proximity to the South Korean capital.

It is part of the Seoul Capital Area, along with Seoul itself and Gyeonggi Province, forming the world's fourth largest metropolitan area by population.

Incheon has since led the economic development of Korea by opening its port to the outside world, ushering in the modernization of Korea as a center of industrialization.

In 2003, the city was designated as Korea's first free economic zone.

Since then, large local companies and global enterprises have increasingly invested in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, including Samsung which chose Songdo International City as its new investment destination for its bio industry.

As an international city, Incheon has held numerous large scale international conferences, such as the Incheon Global Fair & Festival in 2009.

The 17th Asian Games Incheon 2014 was also held in Incheon on 19 September 2014.

Incheon has established itself as a major transportation hub in northeast Asia with the Incheon International Airport and Incheon Port.

The city is also home to the Green Climate Fund, an international organization addressing environmental issues.

The first historical record of the Incheon area dates back to 475 CE, during the reign of King Jangsu of Goguryeo, by the name of Michuhol, which is supposed to be located on today's Munhak Hill (문학산).

The area underwent several name changes with successive kingdoms and dynasties.

In Goryeo era, Incheon was called Gyeongwon (경원) or Inju (인주).

The current name was turned to Incheon in 1413.[citation needed] Later, Incheon County became Incheon Metropolitan Prefecture (dohobu, 도호부).

Old Incheon consisted of today's southern Incheon (i.e.

Jung-gu, Dong-gu, Nam-gu, Yeonsu-gu, and Namdong-gu) and northern part of Siheung City.

The city centre was Gwangyo-dong, where the prefecture office (도호부청사) and the local academy (hyanggyo, 향교) were located.

The "original" two remaining buildings of the Incheon prefecture office are located in Munhak Elementary School, while the newly built (in 2001) prefecture office buildings are right across from Munhak Baseball Stadium.

Another historical name of the city, Jemulpo (alternatively Romanized as Chemulpo), was not widely used until the opening of the port in 1883.[2][3] After the opening of the Incheon port, the city centre moved from Gwangyo to Jemulpo.

Today, either Jemulpo or Gwangyo-dong is considered "Original Incheon" (원인천).

It was renamed as Jinsen during Japanese rule in the Korean peninsula.

In 1914, the Japanese colonial government merged outer parts of old Incheon (including the former centre of Gwangyo) with Bupyeong County, forming Bucheon County.[citation needed] Through 1936 and 1940, some part of Bucheon County was recombined into Incheon City, by which some part of "old" Bupyeong was annexed into Incheon.

Incheon was originally part of Gyeonggi Province, but was granted Directly Governed (now Metropolitan) City status on July 1, 1981; the city officially separated from the province.

In 1989, neighbouring islands and Gyeyang township of Gimpo County[4] were ceded to Incheon and in 1995 Geomdan township of Gimpo Country and two counties of Ganghwa and Onjin were annexed to Incheon Metropolitan City.

Incheon was known as Inchon prior to South Korea's adoption of a new Romanization system in 2000.

The city was the site of the Battle of Chemulpo Bay, where the first shots of the Russo-Japanese War were fired.

During the Korean War, Incheon was occupied by North Korean troops on 4 September 1950.

Eleven days later, Incheon was the site of the Battle of Inchon, when United States troops landed to relieve pressure on the Pusan Perimeter and to launch a United Nations offensive northward.

The result was a decisive UN victory and it was recaptured on 19 September 1950.[5] The USS Inchon was named after the tide-turning battle that ensued.

Incheon has also hosted a series of major international events.

The Global Fair & Festival 2009 Incheon was held in the Songdo District in August 2009.

It was open from 7 August to 25 October for a period of 80 days.

It was a comprehensive international event with global institutions and corporations as participants.

Various musicians and artists performed during the event.

The city hosted a meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers in February 2010.[6] Incheon was the site of the third Global Model United Nations Conference, held from 10th to the 14th of August 2011.

It first hosted the Incheon Women Artists' Biennale in 2004 which expanded into welcoming international artists in its subsequent 2007, 2009[7] and 2011.

Incheon hosted the Asian Games in 2014.[8] On 27 February 2007, Incheon declared itself an "English City," and inaugurated the "Incheon Free English Zone" program.

The goal of the program is to make the city as proficient in English as Hong Kong and Singapore.[9] This is for the ultimate purpose of establishing Incheon as a commercial and business hub of northeast Asia (see Free Economic Zone below).

The official slogan of the program is "Smile with English." Incheon is home to a number of colleges and universities: International schools: Incheon has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cwa),[11] and humid continental climate[12] (Köppen Dwa, respectively).

Like other metropolitan cities, Incheon has a strong effect of urban heat island effect.[13] Incheon's climate is about average compared to the rest of Korea, with 8 locations being cooler and 10 locations being warmer, and with 9 locations being wetter and 9 locations being drier.[14] Incheon experiences each of its four seasons, distinctly feeling the rise and fall of temperature and humidity.

The temperature however, never rises to an extreme, and the climate of the city is essentially mild.

Incheon is swept by the seasonal winds as the northwesterly winds strike the city in the winter and the summer in Incheon is affected by gusts of the warm southwesterly winds.[15] Incheon forms the heart of Capital Industrial Region.

During the industrialization of South Korea, several industrial complexes were built throughout the city, and as a result, the city was largely dependent on manufacturing industry.

But with the designation of Incheon Free Economic Zone in 2003, the city is now making an effort to foster new growth industries.

Major industrial parks include Bupyeong industrial complex, which hosts GM Incheon plant(formerly a GM Daewoo Incheon plant), Juan industrial complex, and Namdong Industrial complex.

In recent years, bio industry is emerging as a new growth industry of the city.

Currently, with the total production capacity of 330kℓ per year, the city ranks 2nd in the world by production capacity along with San Francisco, United States.

The capacity is under expansion, and after completion in 2018, the city will rank 1st with the production capacity of 510kℓ.[20] Also, logistics industry is also experiencing a rapid growth, thanks to Incheon Airport, which was ranked fourth in the world by cargo traffic, and the expansion of Incheon Port.

Incheon is a major domestic and international transport hub for Korea.

Incheon International Airport is South Korea's primary international airport and a regional air hub.

In 2015, it was the world's 22nd busiest airport by passenger traffic, with 49,412,750 passengers.[21] There were a total of 305,446 flights (300,634 international, 4,812 domestic) to and from Incheon International Airport in 2015, an average of 837 flights (824 international, 13 domestic) daily.

Korea's two main carriers, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, serviced 50.9% of flights, while low-cost and foreign carriers serviced the remaining 49.1% of flights.[22] The airport is experiencing a rapid increase in passengers, and the opening of Terminal 2 in December 2017 spurred additional traffic.

The airport was also featured in the Korean drama series, "Air City." Incheon's sea port is the second largest port in Korea after Busan Port.

The International Passenger Terminal located at the port offers ferries to five cities in China: Dalian, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dandong, and Weihai.

There are also ferries to Incheon's outlying islands as well as Baengnyeong Island inside of the Northern Limit Line.

Incheon Bus Terminal, located at its eponymous subway stop, offers express bus transportation to all parts of Korea.

Many city bus lines offer transportation within city limits as well as to the neighboring cities of Bucheon, Gimpo, Seoul, and Siheung.

Many BRT lines offer transportation between Seoul and Incheon.

Local service to Guro, Seoul, Cheongnyangni, Uijeongbu and Soyosan is offered by Seoul's subway Line 1.

The line has 11 stations within Incheon and connects to the Incheon Subway at Bupyeong and Juan stations.

Rapid service on the same line to Yongsan Station in Seoul depart from DongIncheon station and stops at major stations.

The Airport Express (AREX) line runs from Incheon International Airport to Seoul Station via Gimpo International Airport.

The Incheon-Gimpo section was opened in March 2007 and was extended to Seoul station in December 2010.

Passengers can choose a high-speed service stopping only at Incheon airport and Seoul, which takes 43 minutes but departs only every half-hour; or the all-station service which takes 53 minutes but leaves every six minutes.

KTX service was introduced on the AREX line on 30 June 2014, with stops at Incheon International Airport Station and Geoman Station.

There are additional plans to use the newly built Suin Line to bring KTX service to Incheon Station by 2021.[23] The Incheon Subway has two subway lines serving the city.

The first line connects to the Seoul Metropolitan Subway system at Bupyeong Station (Seoul Subway Line 1), and AREX line at Gyeyang Station.

It connects International Business District Station in Songdo to Gyeyang Station.

The line has 28 stations on 29.4 kilometres (18.3 miles) of track.

The line also has transfer stations with the Suin Line at Woninjae Station, with the Incheon Subway Line 2 at Incheon City Hall Station, and with Seoul Subway Line 7 at Bupyeong-gu Office Station.

Incheon Subway Line 2 opened in July 2016 and runs from Geomdan Oryu Station to Unyeon Station.

The automated line is 29.2 kilometres (18.1 miles) long, and has 27 stations, including transfer stations at Geomam Station with the AREX line, Juan Station with Seoul Subway Line 1 and Incheon Subway Line 2 at Incheon City Hall Station.

The Incheon subway is operated by the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation (IRTC).

There are additional plans for a third subway line in Incheon.

Korail has also constructed a new commuter rail line named Suin Line.

The line opened in 2012 from Oido Station in Siheung to Songdo Station in Incheon.

It was then extended in 2016, and now reaches Incheon Station where passengers can transfer to Seoul Subway Line 1.

In 2017, the line will be extended from Oido Station to Suwon Station.

SMRT (one of three operating companies of Seoul Metropolitan Subway) has extended Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 7 to Bupyeong-gu office by 2011 and provided transfers to the Incheon Subway system.

It has 3 stations within Incheon.

By 2020, he line will further be extended westwards to Seoknam Station where it will be possible to transfer to Incheon Subway Line 2.

The Incheon Free Economic Zone consists of the three regions of Songdo, Cheongna, and the island of Yeongjong, and has a total area of 51,739 acres (20,938 ha).

The goal of IFEZ is to transform these three areas into hubs for logistics, international business, leisure, and tourism for the Northeast Asian region.

The term 'Free Economic Zone' applies to the development in these three areas with the aim of improving the business environment for foreign-invested enterprises and the living conditions for foreigners.

The zone is a specially designated area to create the most favorable business and living environment where foreign nationals can live and invest freely and conveniently.

Incheon's Free Economic Zone, the first in Korea, was officially designated by the Korean government in August 2003.

IFEZ is planned to be a self-contained living and business district featuring air and sea transportation, a logistics complex, an international business center, financial services, residences, schools and hospitals, and shopping and entertainment centres.

Songdo International City began development in 1994 and is being built on reclaimed land.

It is designated to become a center of diverse international businesses, a hub for international trade, an area for knowledge-based technologies, and a place for eco-friendly urban living.

Construction is due to be completed in 2020.

As of 2012[update], Yeongjong International City’s 34,183 acres (13,833 ha) centering on the Incheon International Airport is being developed as an eco-friendly airport city scheduled to be completed by 2020.

Paradise Co, a South Korean casino operator, said in October 2013 that it will build the country's largest casino on Yeongjong Island.[24] The Cheongna district, on the mainland adjacent Yeongjong Island, will focus on entertainment and will feature a world class theme park.

It will also be a residential area with sports facilities, a floriculture complex, and a business area specially designed for international finance.

Incheon is divided into 8 districts (gu) and 2 counties (gun).

Religion in Incheon (2005)[26] According to the census of 2005, of the people of Incheon 36.1% follow Christianity (22.4% Protestantism and 13.7% Catholicism) and 13.8% follow Buddhism.[26] 50.1% of the population is mostly not religious or follow Muism and other indigenous religions.

Incheon is home to the following professional and semi professional sports teams: Association football: The K League 1 team Incheon United FC.

The Incheon team was known to have a popular rivalry against former Bucheon SK (now Jeju United), due to the teams' close geographical relationship.

The WK League team is named Hyundai Steel Red Angels.

Baseball: The KBO League team SK Wyverns.

The first Incheon-based pro-baseball team was Sammi (one of the major steel companies in the 1980s) Superstars.

Basketball: The KBL team Incheon Electroland Elephants and WKBL team Incheon Shinhan Bank S-Birds are based in Incheon.

Ice hockey: The Daemyung Killer Whales of the Asia League Ice Hockey play their games at Incheon's Seonhak Ice Rink.

Volleyball: The V-League teams are Incheon Korean Air Jumbos and Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders.

Munhak Sports Complex: The Munahk Sports Complex houses both a football stadium and a baseball stadium.

The football stadium was Incheon's venue for the 2002 Football World Cup, and is also the home venue for Incheon United.

The baseball stadium is the home venue for the SK Wyverns.

In April 2007, Incheon was selected as the host city for the 2014 Asian Games, beating out New Delhi.[27] Yeonhui Cricket Ground: Yeonhui Cricket Ground is a purpose-built cricket stadium in Incheon built for Cricket at the 2014 Asian Games.

The 2014 Asian Games featured cricket for both the men's and the women's event and this ground was used for the scheduled cricket matches played in the games.

It has been reported that the crowd capacity of this ground to be 2,353.

This first cricket stadium in South Korea.[28][29] Incheon Football Stadium (Sungui Arena): Incheon Football Stadium is the first football-only stadium in Incheon.

It was built in 2012 with a capacity for 20,891 spectators.

A number of Korea's western islands, including Ganghwa Island, Yeongjong Island, and Baengnyeong Island are also administered by Incheon.

Baengnyeong Island is South Korea's westernmost point.

Monument to 100 years of friendship between Korea and the US in Jayu Park The statue of MacArthur at Jayu Park A walkway in Jayu Park The only official Chinatown in South Korea Peking Opera wall Chinatown, Incheon, South Korea Korean-chinese cultural center Chinatown in South Korea Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village in Incheon in South Korea Port of Incheon Incheon Bridge The tiny island of Jakyakdo Wolmido promenade Incheon is twinned with:[30]

Anime

Anime (US: /ˈænəˌmeɪ/, UK: /ˈænɪˌmeɪ/)[1] (Japanese: アニメ, Hepburn: Anime, [aɲime] (listen), plural: Anime)[a] is hand-drawn and computer animation originating from Japan.

The word Anime is the Japanese term for animation, which refers to all forms of animated media.[2] Outside Japan, Anime refers specifically to animation from Japan or as a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastical themes.[3][4] The culturally abstract approach to the word's meaning may open up the possibility of Anime produced in countries other than Japan.[5][6][7] Many Westerners strictly view Anime as a Japanese animation product.[4] Some scholars suggest defining Anime as specifically or quintessentially Japanese may be related to a new form of Orientalism.[8] The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917, and Japanese Anime production has since continued to increase steadily.

The characteristic Anime art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of Osamu Tezuka and spread internationally in the late 20th century, developing a large domestic and international audience.

Anime is distributed theatrically, by way of television broadcasts, directly to home media, and over the Internet.

It is classified into numerous genres targeting diverse broad and niche audiences.

Anime is a diverse art form with distinctive production methods and techniques that have been adapted over time in response to emergent technologies.

It combines graphic art, characterization, cinematography, and other forms of imaginative and individualistic techniques.[9] The production of Anime focuses less on the animation of movement and more on the realism of settings as well as the use of camera effects, including panning, zooming, and angle shots.

Being hand-drawn, Anime is separated from reality by a crucial gap of fiction that provides an ideal path for escapism that audiences can immerse themselves into with relative ease.[9] Diverse art styles are used, and character proportions and features can be quite varied, including characteristically large or realistically sized emotive eyes.

The Anime industry consists of over 430 production studios, including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and Toei Animation.

Despite comprising only a fraction of Japan's domestic film market, Anime makes up a majority of Japanese DVD and Blu-ray sales.

It has also seen international success after the rise of English-dubbed and subbed programming.

This rise in international popularity has resulted in non-Japanese productions using the Anime art style.

Whether these works are Anime-influenced animation or proper Anime is a subject for debate amongst fans.[10] Japanese Anime accounted for 60% of the world's animated television shows as of 2016[update].[11] In 2015, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, referred to Anime as one of the loved ones of American youth.[12][13] Anime is an art form, specifically animation, that includes all genres found in cinema, but it can be mistakenly classified as a genre.[14] In Japanese, the term Anime is used as a blanket term to refer to all forms of animation from around the world.[2][15] In English, Anime (/ˈænəˌmeɪ/) is more restrictively used to denote a "Japanese-style animated film or television entertainment" or as "a style of animation created in Japan".[3][16] The etymology of the word Anime is disputed.

The English term "animation" is written in Japanese katakana as アニメーション (animēshon, Japanese pronunciation: [Animeːɕoɴ])[4] and is アニメ (Anime) in its shortened form.[4] The pronunciation of Anime in Japanese differs from pronunciations in other languages such as Standard English (pronunciation: /ˈænɪmeɪ/), which has different vowels and stress with regards to Japanese, where each mora carries equal stress.

As with a few other Japanese words such as saké, Pokémon, and Kobo Abé, English-language texts sometimes spell Anime as animé (as in French), with an acute accent over the final e, to cue the reader to pronounce the letter, not to leave it silent as Standard English orthography may suggest.

Some sources claim that Anime derives from the French term for animation dessin animé,[17][18] but others believe this to be a myth derived from the French popularity of the medium in the late 1970s and 1980s.[4] In English, Anime—when used as a common noun—normally functions as a mass noun.

(For example: "Do you watch Anime?" or "How much Anime have you collected?")[19] Prior to the widespread use of Anime, the term Japanimation was prevalent throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

In the mid-1980s, the term Anime began to supplant Japanimation.[17][20] In general, the latter term now only appears in period works where it is used to distinguish and identify Japanese animation.[21] The word Anime has also been criticized, e.g.

in 1987, when Hayao Miyazaki stated that he despised the truncated word Anime because to him it represented the desolation of the Japanese animation industry.

He equated the desolation with animators lacking motivation and with mass-produced, overly expressionistic products relying upon a fixed iconography of facial expressions and protracted and exaggerated action scenes but lacking depth and sophistication in that they do not attempt to convey emotion or thought.[22] The first format of Anime was theatrical viewing which originally began with commercial productions in 1917.[23] Originally the animated flips were crude and required played musical components before adding sound and vocal components to the production.

On July 14, 1958, Nippon Television aired Mogura no Abanchūru ("Mole's Adventure"), both the first televised and first color Anime to debut.[24] It was not until the 1960s when the first televised series were broadcast and it has remained a popular medium since.[25] Works released in a direct to video format are called "original video animation" (OVA) or "original animation video" (OAV); and are typically not released theatrically or televised prior to home media release.[26][27] The emergence of the Internet has led some animators to distribute works online in a format called "original net Anime" (ONA).[28] The home distribution of Anime releases were popularized in the 1980s with the VHS and LaserDisc formats.[26] The VHS NTSC video format used in both Japan and the United States is credited as aiding the rising popularity of Anime in the 1990s.[26] The LaserDisc and VHS formats were transcended by the DVD format which offered the unique advantages; including multiple subtitling and dubbing tracks on the same disc.[29] The DVD format also has its drawbacks in its usage of region coding; adopted by the industry to solve licensing, piracy and export problems and restricted region indicated on the DVD player.[29] The Video CD (VCD) format was popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but became only a minor format in the United States that was closely associated with bootleg copies.[29] Japanese animation began in the early 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States and Russia.[18] A claim for the earliest Japanese animation is Katsudō Shashin, an undated and private work by an unknown creator.[30] In 1917, the first professional and publicly displayed works began to appear.

Animators such as Ōten Shimokawa and Seitarou Kitayama produced numerous works, with the oldest surviving film being Kouchi's Namakura Gatana, a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target only to suffer defeat.[23][31][32] The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake resulted in widespread destruction to Japan's infrastructure and the destruction of Shimokawa's warehouse, destroying most of these early works.[33] By the 1930s animation was well established in Japan as an alternative format to the live-action industry.

It suffered competition from foreign producers and many animators—like Noburō Ōfuji and Yasuji Murata—still worked in cheaper cutout animation rather than cel animation.[34] Other creators, Kenzō Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo, nonetheless made great strides in animation technique; they benefited from the patronage of the government, which employed animators to produce educational shorts and propaganda.[35] The first talkie Anime was Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, produced by Masaoka in 1933.[36][37] By 1940, numerous Anime artists' organizations had risen, including the Shin Mangaha Shudan and Shin Nippon Mangaka.[38] The first feature-length animated film was Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors directed by Seo in 1944 with sponsorship by the Imperial Japanese Navy.[39] The success of The Walt Disney Company's 1937 feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs profoundly influenced many Japanese animators.[40] The 1950s saw a proliferation of short, animated advertisements made in Japan for television broadcasting.[41] In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation techniques to reduce costs and to limit the number of frames in productions.[42] He intended this as a temporary measure to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced animation staff.[43] Three Tales, aired in 1960, was the first Anime shown on television.[44] The first Anime television series was Otogi Manga Calendar, aired from 1961 to 1964.[45] The 1970s saw a surge of growth in the popularity of manga, Japanese comic books and graphic novels, many of which were later animated.

The work of Osamu Tezuka drew particular attention: he has been called a "legend"[46] and the "god of manga".[47][48] His work—and that of other pioneers in the field—inspired characteristics and genres that remain fundamental elements of Anime today.

The giant robot genre (known as "mecha" outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the Super Robot genre under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino who developed the Real Robot genre.[49] Robot Anime like the Gundam and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series became instant classics in the 1980s, and the robot genre of Anime is still one of the most common in Japan and worldwide today.[50] In the 1980s, Anime became more accepted in the mainstream in Japan (although less than manga), and experienced a boom in production.

Following a few successful adaptations of Anime in overseas markets in the 1980s, Anime gained increased acceptance in those markets in the 1990s and even more at the turn of the 21st century.

In 2002, Spirited Away, a Studio Ghibli production directed by Hayao Miyazaki won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and in 2003 at the 75th Academy Awards it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Anime differs greatly from other forms of animation by its diverse art styles, methods of animation, its production, and its process.

Visually, Anime is a diverse art form that contains a wide variety of art styles, differing from one creator, artist, and studio.[51] While no one art style predominates Anime as a whole, they do share some similar attributes in terms of animation technique and character design.

Anime follows the typical production of animation, including storyboarding, voice acting, character design, and cel production (Shirobako, itself a series, highlights many of the aspects involved in Anime production).

Since the 1990s, animators have increasingly used computer animation to improve the efficiency of the production process.

Artists like Noburō Ōfuji pioneered the earliest Anime works, which were experimental and consisted of images drawn on blackboards, stop motion animation of paper cutouts, and silhouette animation.[52][53] Cel animation grew in popularity until it came to dominate the medium.

In the 21st century, the use of other animation techniques is mostly limited to independent short films,[54] including the stop motion puppet animation work produced by Tadahito Mochinaga, Kihachirō Kawamoto and Tomoyasu Murata.[55][56] Computers were integrated into the animation process in the 1990s, with works such as Ghost in the Shell and Princess Mononoke mixing cel animation with computer-generated images.[57] Fuji Film, a major cel production company, announced it would stop cel production, producing an industry panic to procure cel imports and hastening the switch to digital processes.[57] Prior to the digital era, Anime was produced with traditional animation methods using a pose to pose approach.[52] The majority of mainstream Anime uses fewer expressive key frames and more in-between animation.[58] Japanese animation studios were pioneers of many limited animation techniques, and have given Anime a distinct set of conventions.

Unlike Disney animation, where the emphasis is on the movement, Anime emphasizes the art quality and let limited animation techniques make up for the lack of time spent on movement.

Such techniques are often used not only to meet deadlines but also as artistic devices.[59] Anime scenes place emphasis on achieving three-dimensional views, and backgrounds are instrumental in creating the atmosphere of the work.[18] The backgrounds are not always invented and are occasionally based on real locations, as exemplified in Howl's Moving Castle and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.[60][61] Oppliger stated that Anime is one of the rare mediums where putting together an all-star cast usually comes out looking "tremendously impressive".[62] The cinematic effects of Anime differentiates itself from the stage plays found in American animation.

Anime is cinematically shot as if by camera, including panning, zooming, distance and angle shots to more complex dynamic shots that would be difficult to produce in reality.[63][64][65] In Anime, the animation is produced before the voice acting, contrary to American animation which does the voice acting first; this can cause lip sync errors in the Japanese version.[66] Body proportions of human Anime characters tend to accurately reflect the proportions of the human body in reality.

The height of the head is considered by the artist as the base unit of proportion.

Head heights can vary, but most Anime characters are about seven to eight heads tall.[67] Anime artists occasionally make deliberate modifications to body proportions to produce super deformed characters that feature a disproportionately small body compared to the head; many super deformed characters are two to four heads tall.

Some Anime works like Crayon Shin-chan completely disregard these proportions, in such a way that they resemble caricatured Western cartoons.

A common Anime character design convention is exaggerated eye size.

The animation of characters with large eyes in Anime can be traced back to Osamu Tezuka, who was deeply influenced by such early animation characters as Betty Boop, who was drawn with disproportionately large eyes.[68] Tezuka is a central figure in Anime and manga history, whose iconic art style and character designs allowed for the entire range of human emotions to be depicted solely through the eyes.[69] The artist adds variable color shading to the eyes and particularly to the cornea to give them greater depth.

Generally, a mixture of a light shade, the tone color, and a dark shade is used.[70][71] Cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign.[72] However, not all Anime characters have large eyes.

For example, the works of Hayao Miyazaki are known for having realistically proportioned eyes, as well as realistic hair colors on their characters.[73] Hair in Anime is often unnaturally lively and colorful or uniquely styled.

The movement of hair in Anime is exaggerated and "hair action" is used to emphasize the action and emotions of characters for added visual effect.[74] Poitras traces hairstyle color to cover illustrations on manga, where eye-catching artwork and colorful tones are attractive for children's manga.[74] Despite being produced for a domestic market, Anime features characters whose race or nationality is not always defined, and this is often a deliberate decision, such as in the Pokémon animated series.[75] Anime and manga artists often draw from a common canon of iconic facial expression illustrations to denote particular moods and thoughts.[76] These techniques are often different in form than their counterparts in Western animation, and they include a fixed iconography that is used as shorthand for certain emotions and moods.[77] For example, a male character may develop a nosebleed when aroused.[77] A variety of visual symbols are employed, including sweat drops to depict nervousness, visible blushing for embarrassment, or glowing eyes for an intense glare.[78] The opening and credits sequences of most Anime television episodes are accompanied by Japanese pop or rock songs, often by reputed bands.

They may be written with the series in mind, but are also aimed at the general music market, and therefore often allude only vaguely or not at all to the themes or plot of the series.

Pop and rock songs are also sometimes used as incidental music ("insert songs") in an episode, often to highlight particularly important scenes.[79] Anime are often classified by target demographic, including childrens' (子供, kodomo), girls' (少女, shōjo), boys' (少年, shōnen) and a diverse range of genres targeting an adult audience.

Shoujo and shounen Anime sometimes contain elements popular with children of both sexes in an attempt to gain crossover appeal.

Adult Anime may feature a slower pace or greater plot complexity that younger audiences may typically find unappealing, as well as adult themes and situations.[80] A subset of adult Anime works featuring pornographic elements are labeled "R18" in Japan, and are internationally known as hentai (originating from pervert (変態, hentai)).

By contrast, some Anime subgenres incorporate ecchi, sexual themes or undertones without depictions of sexual intercourse, as typified in the comedic or harem genres; due to its popularity among adolescent and adult Anime enthusiasts, the inclusion of such elements is considered a form of fan service.[81][82] Some genres explore homosexual romances, such as yaoi (male homosexuality) and yuri (female homosexuality).

While often used in a pornographic context, the terms yaoi and yuri can also be used broadly in a wider context to describe or focus on the themes or the development of the relationships themselves.[83] Anime's genre classification differs from other types of animation and does not lend itself to simple classification.[84] Gilles Poitras compared the labeling Gundam 0080 and its complex depiction of war as a "giant robot" Anime akin to simply labeling War and Peace a "war novel".[84] Science fiction is a major Anime genre and includes important historical works like Tezuka's Astro Boy and Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go.

A major subgenre of science fiction is mecha, with the Gundam metaseries being iconic.[85] The diverse fantasy genre includes works based on Asian and Western traditions and folklore; examples include the Japanese feudal fairytale InuYasha, and the depiction of Scandinavian goddesses who move to Japan to maintain a computer called Yggdrasil in Ah! My Goddess.[86] Genre crossing in Anime is also prevalent, such as the blend of fantasy and comedy in Dragon Half, and the incorporation of slapstick humor in the crime Anime film Castle of Cagliostro.[87] Other subgenres found in Anime include magical girl, harem, sports, martial arts, literary adaptations, medievalism,[88] and war.[89] The animation industry consists of more than 430 production companies with some of the major studios including Toei Animation, Gainax, Madhouse, Gonzo, Sunrise, Bones, TMS Entertainment, Nippon Animation, P.A.Works, Studio Pierrot and Studio Ghibli.[90] Many of the studios are organized into a trade association, The Association of Japanese Animations.

There is also a labor union for workers in the industry, the Japanese Animation Creators Association.

Studios will often work together to produce more complex and costly projects, as done with Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away.[90] An Anime episode can cost between US$100,000 and US$300,000 to produce.[91] In 2001, animation accounted for 7% of the Japanese film market, above the 4.6% market share for live-action works.[90] The popularity and success of Anime is seen through the profitability of the DVD market, contributing nearly 70% of total sales.[90] According to a 2016 article on Nikkei Asian Review, Japanese television stations have bought over ¥60 billion worth of Anime from production companies "over the past few years", compared with under ¥20 billion from overseas.[92] There has been a rise in sales of shows to television stations in Japan, caused by late night Anime with adults as the target demographic.[92] This type of Anime is less popular outside Japan, being considered "more of a niche product".[92] Spirited Away (2001) is the all-time highest-grossing film in Japan.[93][94] It was also the highest-grossing Anime film worldwide until it was overtaken by Makoto Shinkai's 2016 film Your Name.[95] Anime films represent a large part of the highest-grossing Japanese films yearly in Japan, with 6 out of the top 10 in 2014, in 2015 and also in 2016.

Anime has to be licensed by companies in other countries in order to be legally released.

While Anime has been licensed by its Japanese owners for use outside Japan since at least the 1960s, the practice became well-established in the United States in the late 1970s to early 1980s, when such TV series as Gatchaman and Captain Harlock were licensed from their Japanese parent companies for distribution in the US market.

The trend towards American distribution of Anime continued into the 1980s with the licensing of titles such as Voltron and the 'creation' of new series such as Robotech through use of source material from several original series.[96] In the early 1990s, several companies began to experiment with the licensing of less children-oriented material.

Some, such as A.D.

Vision, and Central Park Media and its imprints, achieved fairly substantial commercial success and went on to become major players in the now very lucrative American Anime market.

Others, such as Animeigo, achieved limited success.

Many companies created directly by Japanese parent companies did not do as well, most releasing only one or two titles before completing their American operations.

Licenses are expensive, often hundreds of thousands of dollars for one series and tens of thousands for one movie.[97] The prices vary widely; for example, Jinki: Extend cost only $91,000 to license while Kurau Phantom Memory cost $960,000.[97] Simulcast Internet streaming rights can be cheaper, with prices around $1,000-$2,000 an episode,[98] but can also be more expensive, with some series costing more than US$200,000 per episode.[99] The Anime market for the United States was worth approximately $2.74 billion in 2009.[100] Dubbed animation began airing in the United States in 2000 on networks like The WB and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.[101] In 2005, this resulted in five of the top ten Anime titles having previously aired on Cartoon Network.[101] As a part of localization, some editing of cultural references may occur to better follow the references of the non-Japanese culture.[102] The cost of English localization averages US$10,000 per episode.[103] The industry has been subject to both praise and condemnation for fansubs, the addition of unlicensed and unauthorized subtitled translations of Anime series or films.[104] Fansubs, which were originally distributed on VHS bootlegged cassettes in the 1980s, have been freely available and disseminated online since the 1990s.[104] Since this practice raises concerns for copyright and piracy issues, fansubbers tend to adhere to an unwritten moral code to destroy or no longer distribute an Anime once an official translated or subtitled version becomes licensed.

They also try to encourage viewers to buy an official copy of the release once it comes out in English, although fansubs typically continue to circulate through file-sharing networks.[105] Even so, the laid back regulations of the Japanese animation industry tend to overlook these issues, allowing it to grow underground and thus increasing the popularity until there is a demand for official high-quality releases for animation companies.

This has led to an increase in global popularity with Japanese animations, reaching $40 million in sales in 2004.[106] Legal international availability of Anime on the Internet has changed in recent years, with simulcasts of series available on websites like Crunchyroll.

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) valued the domestic Anime market in Japan at ¥2.4 trillion ($24 billion), including ¥2 trillion from licensed products, in 2005.[107] JETRO reported sales of overseas Anime exports in 2004 to be ¥2 trillion ($18 billion).[108] JETRO valued the Anime market in the United States at ¥520 billion ($5.2 billion),[107] including $500 million in home video sales and over $4 billion from licensed products, in 2005.[109] JETRO projected in 2005 that the worldwide Anime market, including sales of licensed products, would grow to ¥10 trillion ($100 billion).[107][109] The Anime market in China was valued at $21 billion in 2017,[110] and is projected to reach $31 billion by 2020.[111] The Anime industry has several annual awards that honor the year's best works.

Major annual awards in Japan include the Ōfuji Noburō Award, the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film, the Animation Kobe Awards, the Japan Media Arts Festival animation awards, the Tokyo Anime Award and the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.

In the United States, Anime films compete in the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

There were also the American Anime Awards, which were designed to recognize excellence in Anime titles nominated by the industry, and were held only once in 2006.[112] Anime productions have also been nominated and won awards not exclusively for Anime, like the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature or the Golden Bear.

Anime has become commercially profitable in Western countries, as demonstrated by early commercially successful Western adaptations of Anime, such as Astro Boy and Speed Racer.

Early American adaptions in the 1960s made Japan expand into the continental European market, first with productions aimed at European and Japanese children, such as Heidi, Vicky the Viking and Barbapapa, which aired in various countries.

Particularly Italy, Spain and France grew an interest into Japan's output, due to its cheap selling price and productive output.

In fact, Italy imported the most Anime outside of Japan.[113] These mass imports influenced Anime popularity in South American, Arabic and German markets.[114] The beginning of 1980 saw the introduction of Japanese Anime series into the American culture.

In the 1990s, Japanese animation slowly gained popularity in America.

Media companies such as Viz and Mixx began publishing and releasing animation into the American market.[115] The 1988 film Akira is largely credited with popularizing Anime in the Western world during the early 1990s, before Anime was further popularized by television shows such as Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z in the late 1990s.[116][117] The growth of the Internet later provided Western audiences an easy way to access Japanese content.[106] This is especially the case with net services such as Netflix and Crunchyroll.

As a direct result, various interests surrounding Japan have increased.

Anime clubs gave rise to Anime conventions in the 1990s with the "Anime boom", a period marked by increased popularity of Anime.[118] These conventions are dedicated to Anime and manga and include elements like cosplay contests and industry talk panels.[119] Cosplay, a portmanteau for "costume play", is not unique to Anime and has become popular in contests and masquerades at Anime conventions.[120] Japanese culture and words have entered English usage through the popularity of the medium, including otaku, an unflattering Japanese term commonly used in English to denote a fan of Anime and manga.[121] Another word that has arisen describing fans in the United States is wapanese meaning White individuals who desire to be Japanese, or later known as weeaboo for individuals who demonstrate a strong interest in Japanese Anime subculture, which is a term that originated from abusive content posted on the popular bulletin board website 4chan.org.[122] Anime enthusiasts have produced fan fiction and fan art, including computer wallpapers and Anime music videos.[123] As of the 2010s, many Anime fans use online communities and databases such as MyAnimeList to discuss Anime and track their progress watching respective series.[124][125] One of the key points that made Anime different from a handful of Western cartoons is the potential for visceral content.

Once the expectation that the aspects of visual intrigue or animation being just for children is put aside, the audience can realize that themes involving violence, suffering, sexuality, pain, and death can all be storytelling elements utilized in Anime as much as other types of media.[126] However, as Anime itself became increasingly popular, its styling has been inevitably the subject of both satire and serious creative productions.[4] South Park's "Chinpokomon" and "Good Times with Weapons" episodes, Adult Swim's Perfect Hair Forever, and Nickelodeon's Kappa Mikey are Western examples of satirical depictions of Japanese culture and Anime, but Anime tropes have also been satirized by some Anime, such as KonoSuba.

Traditionally only Japanese works have been considered Anime, but some works have sparked debate for blurring the lines between Anime and cartoons, such as the American Anime style production Avatar: The Last Airbender.[6] These Anime styled works have become defined as Anime-influenced animation, in an attempt to classify all Anime styled works of non-Japanese origin.[127] Some creators of these works cite Anime as a source of inspiration, for example the French production team for Ōban Star-Racers that moved to Tokyo to collaborate with a Japanese production team.[128][129][130] When Anime is defined as a "style" rather than as a national product it leaves open the possibility of Anime being produced in other countries,[3][6] but this has been contentious amongst fans, with John Oppliger stating, "The insistence on referring to original American art as Japanese "Anime" or "manga" robs the work of its cultural identity."[4][131] A U.A.E.-Filipino produced TV series called Torkaizer is dubbed as the "Middle East's First Anime Show", and is currently in production[7] and looking for funding.[132] Netflix has produced multiple Anime series in collaboration with Japanese animation studios,[133] and in doing so, has offered a more accessible channel for distribution to Western markets.[134] The web-based series RWBY, produced by Texas-based company Rooster Teeth, is produced using an Anime art style, and the series has been described as "Anime" by multiple sources.

For example, Adweek, in the headline to one of its articles, described the series as "American-made Anime",[135] and in another headline, The Huffington Post described it as simply "Anime", without referencing its country of origin.[136] In 2013, Monty Oum, the creator of RWBY, said "Some believe just like Scotch needs to be made in Scotland, an American company can't make Anime.

I think that's a narrow way of seeing it.

Anime is an art form, and to say only one country can make this art is wrong."[5] RWBY has been released in Japan with a Japanese language dub;[137] the CEO of Rooster Teeth, Matt Hullum, commented "This is the first time any American-made Anime has been marketed to Japan.

It definitely usually works the other way around, and we're really pleased about that."[135] In Japanese culture and entertainment, media mix is a strategy to disperse content across multiple representations: different broadcast media, gaming technologies, cell phones, toys, amusement parks, and other methods.[138] It is the Japanese term for a transmedia franchise.[139][140] The term gained its circulation in late 1980s, but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of Anime, with its interconnection of media and commodity goods.[141] A number of Anime media franchises have gained considerable global popularity, and are among the world's highest-grossing media franchises.

Pokémon in particular is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, bigger than Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe.[142] Other Anime media franchises among the world's top 15 highest-grossing media franchises include Hello Kitty, Gundam, and Dragon Ball, while the top 30 also includes Fist of the North Star, Yu-Gi-Oh and Evangelion.[143][144]

Police community support officer

A Police community support officer (PCSO) (Welsh: swyddog cymorth cymunedol yr heddlu, SCCH), or as written in legislation community support officer (CSO) (Welsh: swyddog cymorth cymunedol, SCC) is a uniformed member of police staff in England and Wales, a role created by Section 38(2) of the Police Reform Act 2002, which was given Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II on 24 July 2002.[1] They are non-warranted but provided with a variety of police powers and the power of a Constable in various instances by the forty-three territorial police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police (which is the only specialist police service to employ PCSOs).

PCSOs were introduced in September 2002 and first recruited by the Metropolitan Police.[2] The first ever PCSO on the streets of the UK was Barry Faust who left Belgravia Police Station, London at 6am on 7 September 2002 to deliver a car to an east London garage to be fixed.

His shift left the station at 7am.[citation needed] Proposals for PCSOs in Northern Ireland were prevented by a budget shortfall in the Police Service of Northern Ireland,[3] as well as fears that the introduction of uniformed and unarmed PCSOs in Northern Ireland (PSNI constables all carry firearms) would mean they would potentially then become a "legitimate target" in the eyes of the IRA who have attacked other civilians working for the police in Northern Ireland in the past.[4] The Police Reform Act 2002 does not apply to Scotland, which consequently does not have PCSOs.

In Scotland, PCSO stands for police custody and security officers, also known by the slang nickname "turnkeys",[5] who play a rather different role to that performed by PCSOs in England and Wales.

As of 2012[update], there were 15,820 PCSOs in England and Wales.

PCSO numbers had, like those of police constables, been falling in previous years due to economic cuts.[6] At their prior peak in 2009, 16,814 PCSOs were employed.

PCSOs represent 6.8% of total police employees in England and Wales.

The Metropolitan Police has the highest contingent of PCSOs, accounting for a quarter of PCSOs in England and Wales.

The service with the second largest contingent As of 2012[update] was Greater Manchester Police (GMP) with 837 PCSOs, which was 5% of the total.[7][8] As of 2012[update], pay for PCSOs varied from force to force from between around £16,000[9] to around £27,000[10] per year.

Most PCSOs work within a Safer Neighbourhood (SNT) or Neighbourhood Policing team (NPT) that contains PCSOs, & special constables and beat managers (police sergeants).

These teams are led by a neighbourhood inspector.

Day-to-day duties usually include high visibility patrolling, tackling anti-social behaviour, dealing with minor offences, crowd control and directing traffic at public events, helping direct traffic at roadblocks or scenes of accidents, gathering criminal intelligence and supporting front-line policing.[11][12][13] The Home Office have specifically limited the powers designated to PCSOs to maintain the distinction between them and police officers.[14] Some PCSOs are attached to Road Policing Units, and British Transport Police PCSOs are deployed as part of station teams.

As with many aspects of PCSOs, the specifics of each job description vary depending on the relevant force.

Police forces will recruit PCSOs through adverts placed in newspapers and on the Internet and by posters in public places.

Some may use open days as a method of attracting applicants which is the same way constables are recruited.

The recruitment of PCSOs has helped some police forces increase the representation of ethnic minorities among their employees.[15] Unlike with police constables, there is no set selection procedure for PCSOs and the process varies between forces.[16] Despite this, section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002 (the law that made PCSOs) requires that chief constables or Commissioners in charge of police forces have a duty to ensure a recruit "is a suitable person to carry out the functions for the purposes of which they are designated" and is "capable of effectively carrying out those functions".[17][18] Generally, PCSOs will be selected through a process that involves: an application form, interview and fitness tests; a medical test; and security and background vetting.

Welsh PCSOs must have basic abilities to speak the Welsh language.[19] PCSO' are not prevented from reapplying immediately like constables.

Constables have to wait six months before reapplying after failing any part of the recruitment process.

There is nothing stopping PCSOs applying again straight away.[20][21] Having passed the application process a new PCSO then enters the training process.

Unlike police constables, there is no set training procedure for PCSOs so the training given varies from force to force.

Despite this, section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002 (the law that made PCSOs) requires that chief constables or commissioners to ensure a recruit "Has received adequate training in the carrying out of those functions and in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties to be conferred on him by virtue of their designation".[17][18] The original PCSOs recruited in 2002 by the Metropolitan Police received only 3 weeks' training, which was criticised as too little.[22] The training period was eventually raised, and new Metropolitan Police PCSOs are now trained for six weeks.[23] Training in other forces takes between four and eleven weeks, with the length of training depending on how close the PCSOs' authority comes to that of a regular police officer.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30] PCSOs are trained in a variety of tasks, including: radio procedure; report writing; dealing with evidence; going to court; gathering intelligence; managing a crime scene; usage of PCSO powers under the Police Reform Act 2002 and any person powers; use of force; human rights; race and diversity; traffic direction and cordon manning; general health and safety; self-defence (including restraint techniques and the use of handcuffs or leg restraints if used by their force); and first aid.

Written examinations are usually performed during training.

Upon successful completion of training, there may be a passing out parade.[31] After training a new PCSO is normally sent out on patrol with a tutor—usually an experienced PCSO—until they are able to patrol on their own.[32][33] All PCSOs go through a twelve-month probationary period after completing training.

See also: Police uniforms and equipment in the United Kingdom#Uniform The uniform of a PCSO is similar to that of a police constable, but has a variety of uniquely distinguishing features depending on the wearer's respective force.

As with a lot of things about PCSOs, their uniforms have a great deal of variation between police forces.

The current ACPO guidance states that "PCSOs should be recognisable to the public as police staff, but visibly distinct from sworn police officers".[18] Since PCSOs were first created in 2002, many forces have made changes to the uniforms issued.

Most of these changes are commonly in regards to shirts, trousers and headgear.

A PCSO's headgear is normally a black formal peaked cap for men and a black bowler for women, although some forces are now opting for female PCSOs to wear the peaked cap.

Headgear may or may not display the force crest, some have a metal shield, usually blue, stating "Police community support officer" followed below with the name of the wearer's respective force in smaller letters.

Some newer versions of such shields have the wearer's respective force crest printed on them.

Most forces now simply issue the same hat badge that is issued to constables.

[34][35] The band on the hat is a silver reflective band with blue edging, a plain blue band, a chequered blue and silver band or a black and white sillitoe tartan chequered band.

Male PCSOs wear flat, peaked caps rather than custodian helmets, which are worn by male police constables.

The Metropolitan Police Authority noted in 2004 that the hats worn by male PCSOs were not rigid and 'may therefore not offer adequate protection'.[36][37] Female PCSOs wear bowler hats which contain foam padding as protection.

Some forces have unique hat designs for PCSOs which are different from the more common styles such as those worn by the City of London Police PCSOs who adhere to the force's tradition of red detailing, red banding, and a red shield.[38] Another is Merseyside Police, whose PCSOs wear a blue band with green edging.

The badge is a black cloth patch similar to the metal shield used by some other forces;[39] North Wales Police (Welsh: Heddlu Gogledd Cymru) PCSOs wear black baseball caps with a blue band with "police support" written in both English and Welsh.

They are the only force aside from Cheshire Constabulary to issue baseball caps as standard headgear; most forces use custodian helmets, peaked caps or bowler hats.

Surrey Police and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) give their Traffic PCSOs (who are part of GMP's Road Policing Unit (RPU)) white covered caps in the same style as traffic police officers.

The hat retains though the standard blue band and force crest as other PCSOs in GMP.[40][41] Generally, most forces do not have a formal uniform for their PCSOs, but a few provide tunics.

Tunics are the same as that of a Police Constable but may have special badging to distinguish the wearer as a PCSO.[42] As with police constables, PCSOs very rarely wear tunics (provided they have been given them).

One of the few examples was during the funeral of PCSO Mark Marshall of Devon and Cornwall Police who was killed in Afghanistan whilst serving in the Territorial Army.

His funeral was attended by police colleagues wearing tunics including PCSOs.[citation needed] In 2012, PCSOs who had been in service since Monday 6 February 2012 and had completed five full calendar years in the role were awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.[43] This is a commemorative medal created in 2011 to mark the 60th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth II.

PCSOs awarded the honour may wear the ribbon of the medal while on daily routine patrol.

This medal was also given to police constables under similar rules.

Gwent Police issued a silver coloured "Gwent Police Staff Diamond Jubilee Badge 2012", a small lapel badge awarded to all police constables and PCSOs who received the Jubilee Medal.

Shirts for PCSOs are either white, blue or black.

Originally the shirts were collared, ironed, smart and formal with two front pockets and radio loops but in recent years are being replaced in most forces with breathable shirts made to be worn with stab vests.

Such new shirts unlike their predecessors are sometimes marked with "PCSO" or "Police community support officer" on the sleeves or chest.

North Wales Police now have the Welsh flag on both sleeves of their shirts, for both constables and PCSOs.[44] Neckwear if worn is a tie for men or a cravat for women.

Neckwear is normally light blue, but is sometimes black.

Some police forces issue name and/or number badges to its officers to be worn on their uniforms.

PCSOs in such forces have "PCSO" or "Police community support officer" written before their name or number.

The badge is sometimes also differently coloured from the badge of regular police officers.

Trousers are usually black or dark navy blue.

Originally, these were ironed, smart and formal, but in recent years are being replaced in most forces with cargo pocketed designs to allow the PCSO to carry more items.

Body armour vests are issued to PCSOs—although originally not all forces did this—and wearing one is usually compulsory.

Staffordshire Police was the last police force to issue Stab vests to PCSOs; they were only issued to officers of this force in April 2011.[45] Some forces issue tactical vests to PCSOs that go over the body armour to provide alternative storage to a duty belt.

The vest usually comes in black or hi-vis yellow.

Most PCSOs tend to wear blue epaulettes on their shoulders, although some forces use black epaulettes.

Since 2009 a few forces began embroidering names on to epaulettes.[46][47][48] PCSOs are issued with hi-visibility jackets and waterproof coats of varying design depending on the force.

Officers may also be issued with a simple tabard for traffic duties.

PCSOs wear nylon duty belts with quick release buckles to hold their equipment in pouches.

Some police forces issue shoes or boots to PCSOs, although increasingly most do not.

If shoes or boots are not issued, then PCSOs wear their own, which should be black and plain in design.[citation needed] The same rule applies to a police constable.

However, as footwear is PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE) and should be issued as such, the rule that footwear purchased by a PCSO or constable is not enforceable by any Police Force.

Special uniforms exist in most forces for cycling for both PCSOs and constables.

This typically consists of a cycling helmet, breathable cycling shirt and cargo cycling trousers.

Hi-visibility jackets or vests are normally compulsory for cycling.[49][50] PCSOs use a police radio to communicate with other PCSOs, police officers and the control room on the same channel.

Some neighbourhood police teams NPT or safer neighbourhood teams (SNT) also monitor local shop/pub watch radios.

A body armour vest is issued to all PCSOs although in previous years some forces did not do this.

Arrangements for use vary between forces, from compulsory use throughout shift down to officers choice of use.

Unlike constables, due to the non-confrontational nature of their role PCSOs are not normally issued with batons, incapacitant spray, handcuffs or leg restraints.

However PCSOs are authorised to carry and use this equipment.[18] Four forces are an exception to this convention.

British Transport Police PCSOs are issued with handcuffs and leg restraints;[24] Also Dyfed-Powys Police and North Wales Police PCSOs are issued with handcuffs.[51][52] Forces such as South Wales Police also issue 'Biteback' dog spray.

Most Police forces allow some PCSOs to use laser and radar guns to help enforce speed limits.[53][54] PCSO powers vary between forces.

The powers of PCSOs mainly stem from the Police Reform Act 2002, and every PCSO since 2007 has a number of standard powers that were introduced for all PCSOs regardless of which force they belong to.

This is in addition to the discretionary powers that can be designated by the chief constable or commissioner of each PCSO's respective force.[55] Before 2003, the British Transport Police was unable to have PCSOs until Section 28 of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 allowed the BTP Chief Constable to recruit PCSOs and designate powers to them using the Police Reform Act 2002—which previously only extended to chief constables or commissioners of territorial police forces.[56][57] PCSOs have a duty to act in the same manner and to the same standards as a police constable.

Failure to do so could result in disciplinary or criminal proceedings related to misfeasance in public office or malfeasance in public office.

Leeway may be given depending on the situation, as the circumstances may dictate they do not have the training or equipment to deal with a situation like a constable could.

It is also accepted that PCSOs do not have to intervene in high risk situations and it is reasonable if they decide to withdraw from one.

This is due to the non-confrontational purpose of their role.[58] PCSOs are not attested constables, and therefore do not have the same powers of arrest under section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

They can, however, utilise the 'any person' powers of arrest under section 24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (commonly known as a citizens' arrest).

This means they are able to arrest anyone without warrant providing there are reasonable grounds to suspect they are committing, or have committed or are suspected to be guilty of an indictable or 'either-way' offence. This covers offences such as arson, criminal damage, theft, assault, possession of a controlled drug and burglary, etc. All PCSOs can also make common law arrests in exactly the same manner as a constable to prevent a breach of the peace along with a power of entry. Legislation exists that states that PCSOs are entitled to use reasonable force in order to effect an arrest as described above (under section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967), or to forcibly detain (using Police Reform Act 2002 powers) There is also a 'reasonable code of conduct' which is a legitimate and tested defence to a (technical) common assault of which the courts have accepted and has now been written into case law ([1] e.g. leading two disputing parties away from each other to prevent a fight – technically an assault as neither party has been arrested/detained at this point, but still considered otherwise lawful). The term to detain (under the meaning of the Police Reform Act 2002) is a relatively new one, but under law, it is considered a temporary arrest (in accordance with Schedule 4, Part 1, Paragraph 2A(2)(b) of the Police Reform Act 2002). As a result, a PCSO may any person arrest someone he or she has reasonable grounds to suspect is attempting to escape from lawful custody when subject to a detention requirement (under Schedule 4, Part 1, Paragraph 2(3) of the Police Reform Act 2002). Section 38 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 also creates the offence of assault with intent to resist arrest, which also covers the "lawful apprehension/detention of himself or another".[59] This is an either-way offence, meaning that the PCSO may also any person arrest for this offence in addition to the original proposed detention. In September 2018, Section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018[60] created an either-way offence of any assault on any emergency worker, which includes PCSOs. PCSOs may, subject to permission from their force, carry handcuffs and leg restraints which are both governed by the Criminal Law Act 1967 or common law and can be used in the same manner as a constable. They may use them for detaining or arresting a person using reasonable force under the powers listed. There are four forces at present whose PCSOs are currently carrying handcuffs (BTP, Dyfed-Powys Police, North Wales Police, South Wales Police). PCSOs are also lawfully authorised to carry CS spray and a baton when on duty, although none have yet been provided by any Chief Officer of any Police Force.[18] PCSOs have a number of other powers and abilities that they may exercise in the course of their duty:[61] Certain additional powers which may be assigned to PCSOs by the chief constable (or commissioner in London), but which vary from force to force, include:[61] Individual chief constables or commissioners can increase the discretionary powers their PCSOs use from the existing list.[66] PCSO powers were further increased by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 statute. This provided them with powers such as the power of a constable under Section 19 of PACE to seize any suspected criminal property or property suspected of being used in crime [62] and further traffic FPN powers.[67] The Policing and Crime Bill 2016 set out dramatic expansions to the role of PCSO. Section 28(4)(a) states a PCSO will be able to be designated with "any power or duty of a constable (other than a power or duty specified in Part 1 of Schedule 3B excluded powers and duties)". These excluded powers would be: This bill received Royal Assent on 31 January 2017 and was subsequently passed into law[68] Under a mix of legislation and common law, a PCSO can use reasonable force to arrest or detain a suspected offender. PCSOs in theory can all use handcuffs to detain using their own detention powers or arrest using 'any person' powers when on duty. At present only three forces permit this and issue handcuffs. The use of reasonable force is provided by s3 Criminal Law Act 1967, the Common Law and the Human Rights Act 1998. Reasonable force is further provided to PCSOs under Section 38(8) Police Reform Act 2002 when using a power which - in the same circumstances - would also be a power available to a Constable.[69] The following are criminal offences in relation to PCSOs under the Police Reform Act 2002 for which a PCSO can detain, or a police constable can arrest for: It is also an offence for a PCSO to imply that they have a power that they are not designated by their chief constable or commissioner. This list is not exhaustive.[70] This list comes from definitions provided under paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 5 of the Police Reform Act 2002. PCSOs do not normally have a rank system; however, South Yorkshire and Kent Police employ PCSO supervisors.[71] The South Yorkshire epaulettes have a 'bar' above the wording "Police community support officer Supervisor - Traffic" with the shoulder number beneath. PCSO supervisors only supervise PCSOs and normally work under a police sergeant. Avon and Somerset Police currently utilise a PCSO Support role, which is an administration position allowing PCSOs to continue to meet the criteria; primarily subsection three of The Policing Pledge of 2009; to conduct high visibility patrols and spend at least eighty percent of their tour of duty on patrol within the community. PCSOs are a civilianised non-uniform role, who deal mainly with the administration side of the Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT). Although not a rank in itself, most forces have an official system of putting newly trained PCSOs on their probation with a PCSO tutor. A PCSO tutor is normally an experienced PCSO, sometimes with additional training, who will patrol with the new PCSO until he or she is ready to patrol alone. Whilst being tutored like a probationary police constable the new PCSO may have a number of tasks to complete whilst on patrol and will complete such tasks whilst being mentored by the PCSO tutor. PCSO duties can vary from force to force. Many forces may officially have different roles for PCSOs in which special training and sometimes equipment is given. Within the Metropolitan Police, which is responsible for law enforcement in Greater London, several different types of PCSO exist[72] Most forces allow their PCSOs, commonly those assigned to duties managing traffic, to drive marked police vehicles. PCSOs may only use blue lights when they come across an accident to indicate the danger present to members of the public, to alert the public to a road hazard and when asked to by a Senior Officer. PCSOs also regularly use mountain bikes or other bicycles.[citation needed] Since 2007, PCSOs and police constables have had to take a training course before being allowed to use bicycles whilst on duty, after a trainee PCSO died after being hit by a truck in Wigan.[73] In 2007, Segways were reported to be used by Metropolitan Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT) in Sutton. These teams consist mostly of PCSOs. In 2007 it was revealed that some forces recruited a large number of PCSOs under the legal recruitment age for police constables, which was 18 years and 6 months. The criterion seemed to be that such recruits must be at least 16 and their appointment must have been authorised by the chief constable of the force being applied to.[74] One such officer of the Thames Valley Police Force, 17-year-old PCSO Nadia Naeem made news.[75] The decision to appoint her and other 16- and 17-year-olds has been the subject of much debate. On 26 November 2007 the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made the decision that from December 2007, all PCSOs must be 18 before they can be appointed. PCSOs under 18 years who were already appointed, or had applied prior to this ruling were allowed to hold their positions. A few police forces including West Midlands Police, Cumbria Constabulary and the British Transport Police are accepting applications from candidates below 18 years due to the lengthy recruitment process. Candidates will therefore be able to begin training upon reaching the required age.[24][76][77] Since their introduction in 2002 four PCSOs have died on duty: The Police Roll of Honour Trust includes PCSOs in its roll of fallen officers alongside constables providing they die in operational circumstances (i.e. in the performance of a law enforcement role, including patrol) .[86] PCSOs cannot by law be members of the Police Federation, the staff association to which, by statute, all regular police officers from the rank of Police Constable to that of Chief Inspector belong. Police officers cannot by law join any trade union, but as designated, unsworn, unwarranted officers, PCSOs can, despite being employed by the Police. Most PCSOs belong to UNISON.[87] But other PCSOs are represented by PCS - Public and Commercial Services Union for PCSOs in the Metropolitan Police and TSSA - Transport Salaried Staffs' Association who represent PCSOs in the British Transport Police (BTP).[88] Unlike police constables, PCSOs can strike. This has occurred during the 2011 Public Sector Workers strike, which was partaken in by some PCSOs.[89] [90][91] Police constables, on the other hand, cannot legally strike as a result of the Police Act 1996, although they have not been able to strike since 1919 when it was first outlawed. Police Acts do not apply to PCSOs. Unlike other civilians employed by the police, PCSOs are usually not Special Constables, as this may cause confusion with their PCSO role, since Specials have the same powers as paid police constables.[92] Any PCSO wishing to become a Special Constable would usually be required to resign and the same would apply for any Special Constable wanting to be a PCSO.[93] It was expected that the Conservative Party might remove PCSOs in early 2010. It has been reported by the Daily Telegraph that under the Conservatives, police chiefs will no longer be given a fixed amount of money to spend only on PCSOs. Before the 2010 General Election the then Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling was understood to be doubtful of the effectiveness of PCSOs and was concerned that a disproportionate number of them were disciplined in 2009. He stated he would leave it up to individual chief constables to decide whether their particular police force needs PCSOs.[94] However, when interviewed by the Yorkshire Post in May 2009 he suggested that the Conservative Party may well scrap PCSOs altogether.[95] Since the 2010 general election held on 6 May 2010 which resulted in a Conservative Party led coalition government coming to power, no police force has disbanded or announced the disbanding of its PCSOs, and many forces have continued to recruit PCSOs after the 2010 election. Such forces include Durham Constabulary in December 2011 [96] and British Transport Police (BTP) in June 2011. BTP in 2012 have decided to increase their overall numbers of PCSOs. [97] The Metropolitan Police in February 2012 undertook a recruitment campaign to employ around 1000 additional PCSOs.[98] Chris Grayling, who was possibly considering reducing or disbanding PCSOs, was not made Home Secretary after the 2010 general election. Instead, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions.[99] In April 2012 Home Secretary Theresa May told a Home Affairs Select Committee she would leave PCSO funding and numbers to individual police forces although she did not announce any all-out plans to disband them.[66] During the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections, 2012 the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Candidate for the post of police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Norfolk Constabulary Matthew Smith stated he was doubtful of the effectiveness of PCSOs and wanted to reduce their numbers claiming during a debate on BBC Radio Norfolk in the run up to the election that the public in his opinion were not happy with PCSOs seeing them as "Plastic Policemen" During his campaign to be the PCC he stated he would prioritise recruitment to have more Police Constables and Special Constables rather than PCSOs.[100][101][102] All other PCC candidates for Norfolk Constabulary defended PCSOs and their role in the debate. The election for PCCs Matthew Smith is the only known candidate during the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections, 2012 who planned to reduce PCSO numbers. Although later in 2018 Norfolk Constabulary abolished its use of PCSOs and made all of its remaining PCSOs redundant.[103][104] Several countries have copied or already have law enforcement positions that are similar to British PCSOs. In some cases they take the form or are employed by Municipal Police. Municipal police are forces under the control of localised municipal governments, which are other countries' versions of British local authorities or councils. In Australia, most police forces have an equivalent role known as a PSO, standing variously for Protective Services Officer (Victoria Police[105]), Protective Service Officer (Western Australia Police[106] and Australian Federal Police[107]) or Protective Security Officer (Queensland Police[108] and South Australia Police[109]). Except in Victoria, they are not sworn constables and have limited powers. At a federal level, the Australian Protective Service operated from 1984 until 2004, when it was re-integrated into the AFP and currently serves a primary role in policing Parliament House in Canberra, major airports, and certain diplomatic and defence installations. In the state of Victoria, Protective Services Officers are sworn members of Victoria Police. PSOs attached to the Protective Services Unit (PSU) perform duties as guards at state Parliament, at the Shrine of Remembrance and at court premises throughout the state. PSOs attached to the Transit Safety Division (Transit PSOs) perform policing duties at all metropolitan and some regional railway premises throughout Victoria. Unlike PSOs assigned to the PSU, Transit PSOs possess almost full police powers while on duty and within the vicinity of railway premises. They are identified by the use of blue-and-gold Sillitoe tartan rather than blue-and-white and the text "PROTECTIVE SERVICES" on badges. All PSOs carry a firearm, ballistic body armour and all other personal equipment issued to police officers throughout Victoria.[110][111][112] and pepper spray. Queensland Police have Police Liaison Officers, members of staff employed by the police to keep links between the police and the local ethnic minority groups normally distant from the police such as Australia's Aboriginal peoples, Asian groups and African communities. They wear the same blue uniform as Queensland Police officers, but have features on them to distinguish them such as yellow or blue/green epaulettes. They have no police powers and do not carry any weapons or accoutrements.[113] The Western Australia Police have Police Auxiliary Officers, members of staff who are employed to support WA Police Officers through the admission, custody and release of detainees in the Perth Watch House and other station based lock-ups. Other duties include managing and handling drugs and firearms, processing property and exhibits and a range of station support tasks. They wear maroon epaulettes and are not authorised to carry or use firearms however do carry telescopic batons, handcuffs, Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) Spray and Tasers. They have limited police powers and training lasts only 12 weeks.[114] In Belgium, Police Agents (Dutch: Aspirant-Agents) in Belgium serve at both the federal and local level. These uniformed Police Agents who have limited police powers to enforce traffic, parking and public nuisance laws. Unlike Belgian Police Officers, Police Agents are unarmed but are equipped with handcuffs. They were originally known as "Auxiliary Officers".[115] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a Community Safety Officer (CSO) (French: Agent de Sécurité Communautaire, (ASC)) programme based on the model in England and Wales. CSOs are given the title "Special Constable". The first seventeen CSOs were sworn in on 16 June 2008 as part of a pilot programme, which lasted eighteen months.[116] They did not carry pistols like fully powered officers in the RCMP, but they did carry handcuffs, pepper sprays and batons to protect themselves.[117] The programmed disbanded in 2014 with a new program known as "Community Constables". In addition, many municipalities across Canada also employ a Municipal Bylaw Enforcement Officer or a number of them, to enforce municipal by-laws and some provincial laws regulating dangerous canines, tobacco use and motor vehicle traffic. Many Municipal Bylaw Enforcement Officers wear uniforms and some are issued batons and handcuffs. Municipal Bylaw Enforcement Officers are employed by the Municipality, however, some are directly by employed by police departments such as in Medicine Hat, Alberta [118] and Toronto, Ontario [119] French municipalities utilise officers called ASVP or Public Roads Control Officer (French: Agents De Surveillance De La Voie Publique), who are not armed but carry handcuffs and utilise powers of arrest.[120] In the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar Highways Enforcement Officers are employed by Gibraltar Car Parks Limited a wholly owned Government Company of Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar. Like mainland British PCSOs they undertake uniformed patrols. They perform a very similar role to that of mainland British Traffic PCSO that various forces used to replace their Traffic Wardens notably the Metropolitan Police. Unlike British PCSOs they are not staff employees of the Royal Gibraltar Police. As well as performing parking enforcement including the issuing of fines they also look after government owned car parks, look out for deficiencies in the public highways and enforce litter control laws including giving fines or summoning offenders. They are paid £20,325 rising to £24,345 per year subject to satisfactory performance, plus a 12.5% shift disturbance allowance and weekend premium.[121][122] The City Police (German: Stadtpolizei) are employed by German municipalities, and wear a uniform but are also permitted to operate in plain clothes. Depending on state laws and municipal regulations, they are also named Kommunaler Ordnungsdienst, Ordnungsamt or Polizeibehörde. Some units are armed with pepper spray, batons or handguns. They monitor municipal by-laws and laws that fall under the responsibility of municipalities, which include monitoring the conduct of shop owners, sanitation inspections, veterinary inspections and dealing with minor infractions and misdemeanors such as illegal parking, littering, state and local dog regulations. They usually hand out warnings and fines. Like British PCSOs, they have special powers of detention and can perform arrests. Straż Miejska (English: City guard) are municipal police officers who like British PCSOs have limited powers and are not as well armed as fully powered officers but are known to be equipped with batons, handcuffs, tear gas launchers and more recently tasers. There are also plans to allow them to carry handguns of a lesser calibre that the Polish National Police carry. In the event of a major incident they must request the aid of an officer of the National Police.[123][124][125][126][127] In some areas of Spain that are unable to have a local municipal police their function is performed by the Guardia Civil or autonomous Community force who are assisted by officers known as "Vigilantes Municipales" who are uniformed municipal employees with limited powers. The Royal Thai Police formed the "Phuket Tourist Police Department", staffed by "Tourist Police Volunteers" to deal with growing crime problems related to tourism in Thailand. Their role is to support police officers, helping tourists and patrolling mostly by foot. They wear a different uniform but unlike British PCSOs, they carry pepper spray and batons in addition to handcuffs. They do not carry firearms as Thai Police Officers do. A lot of their recruits are foreigners, this is done to make it easier to make links between the police and tourists.[128][129][130] The Tourist Police Volunteers and their work were featured in the TV documentary Big Trouble in Thailand.[131] In The Netherlands, there are municipal SEOs (Special enforcement officers). These assist the police on certain pieces of the law. They could be working in cities as municipal code inspectors, parking enforcement, public transport or in environmental departments. These officers have police powers like detaining people, issue fines and use force when arresting a person. Most municipalities issue handcuffs to the officers, in some cities also police batons are a part of the officers equipment. In a few cities officers are allowed to carry and use pepper spray. Only a few cities have SEOs with additional schooling carrying a firearm, these officers a mostly employed in dense areas like forests. A SEO (or BOA in Dutch) has the status of civil servant and is not a uniformed civilian unlike security guards. Until 2014 every municipality could use a uniform of their choice, some wear exact police uniforms with peaked caps and blue trousers with black striping. From 2015 the justice ministry created a uniform specially for municipal enforcement. This consists of a polo shirt, worker trousers, baseball cap and soft-shell jackets and were inspired by the Spanish municipal police uniforms with checkers bands on shirts and hats. The Dutch police also knows police volontairs, these are divided in two categories; administrative and operational. Operational officers have the same rank, uniform and weapons as regular police officers. There is practically no difference between them, besides their payment. Community Service Officers (CSO) have been used in the US since the 1970s by several police departments. These are unsworn uniformed civilians who provide support in crime prevention, investigation, and response where full police powers are unnecessary and assists sworn police officers in upholding law and order. They are not provided with any legal powers above and beyond a normal citizen. A major difference between this role and the UK equivalent is that the US counterparts are not dispatched to ongoing incidents.[132] Depending on the police department they work for they may be equipped with handcuffs, batons, pepper spray and tasers as possession of these items in the US is usually not considered being 'armed'.[132][133][134] Despite being in recent years the more visible aspect of British policing, PCSOs have rarely been featured in fictional television programmes or films, but there are some examples that are the exception: The 2008 British drama film Adulthood directed by Noel Clarke starred David Ajala as PCSO Desmond "Buds".[135] The popular long-running British police drama The Bill featured two Metropolitan Police PCSO characters; PCSO Colin Fairfax played by Tim Steed and PCSO Laura Bryant played by Melanie Kilburn. Both started at the same time in episode 278. PCSO Bryant is shown eventually becoming a police constable, accurately portraying the fact that many PCSOs go on to become constables. After both PCSOs left neither was replaced and The Bill never again portrayed PCSOs despite their common presence in real life. Paul Abbott's long-running drama series Shameless occasionally features Police community support officers, for example, in Series 8 Episode 19, a PCSO is seen getting out of a police vehicle and chasing Aidan Croker. Hollyoaks the long-running British television soap opera, on Channel 4 featured for many years Carmel McQueen played by Gemma Merna who was portrayed as being a PCSO between 2009 and 2010. PCSOs have also featured in a few comedy sketch programmes including Season 3, Episode 1 of That Mitchell and Webb Look. PCSOs were featured in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom by Dave Lamb Hobby Bobbies.[136] In 2009 the long running children's British comedy television series ChuckleVision featured PCSOs in Season 21, Episode 2 "Top of the Cops" where the shows main characters the Chuckle Brothers Paul & Barry Chuckle are depicted as PCSOs fresh out of training sent out on patrol for the first time.[137][138] In 2015, a PCSO is shown guarding a crime scene on No Offence, episode 6, where he has a brief conversation with a Detective Inspector and Detective Constable. In 2016, season 2 of the BBC series Happy Valley featured Ann Gallagher, played by Charlie Murphy, becoming a PCSO following the events of her kidnapping in the first season. In fiction, PCSOs are often depicted as somewhat laughable – for instance, the That Mitchell and Webb Look sketches, a PCSO is teased by a police officer who clearly despises him, and in the ChuckleVision episode the portrayal of PCSOs is kindly but unflattering. MakgeolliMakgeolli (Korean: 막걸리, raw rice wine [mak.k͈ʌl.li]), sometimes anglicized to makkoli (/ˈmækəli/,[1] MAK-ə-lee), is a Korean alcoholic beverage. The milky, off-white and lightly sparkling rice wine has a slight viscosity that tastes slightly sweet, tangy, bitter, and astringent. Chalky sediment gives it a cloudy appearance.[2][3][4] As a low proof drink of six to nine percent alcohol by volume, it is often considered a happy, communal beverage.[5] In Korea, Makgeolli is often unpasteurized, and the wine continues to mature in the bottle.[6] Because of the short shelf life of unpasteurized "draft" Makgeolli, many exported Makgeolli undergo pasteurization, which deprives the beverage of complex enzymes and flavor compounds.[5] The name Makgeolli (막걸리) is a compound, consisting of mak (막; "roughly, recklessly, carelessly") and a deverbal noun derived from the verb stem georeu- (거르-; "to strain, to sift, to filter") to which is added a noun-forming suffix -i (-이).[7] Because of its cloudy appearance, Makgeolli is also called takju (탁주; 濁酒), meaning "opaque wine", as opposed to the refined, transparent cheongju (청주; 淸酒), meaning "clear wine".[7] Another name for Makgeolli is nongju (농주; 農酒), meaning "agricultural wine" or "farmer's wine," reflecting the traditional popularity of the beverage among farmers.[8] In 2010, the South Korean Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries announced "drunken rice" as the winning entry in a competition to find an English nickname for Makgeolli.[9] "Makcohol" (Makgeolli + alcohol) and "Markelixir" (Makgeolli + elixir) were among the runners-up.[9][10] The five-member panel reasoned that the chosen name would communicate the product's identity as a rice liquor and evoke associations with its ambassadors, the popular Korean hip-hop group Drunken Tiger. This met with a cool reception from the Korean public, with objections relating to translation of the proper noun Makgeolli, felt to be unnecessary, and to the negative connotations of the word "drunken".[10] Scottish band Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5, playing at the inaugural DMZ Peace Train Festival in 2018, called Makgeolli 'Fight Milk', or 'Korean Buckfast'. Along with Soju and the Korean beer brand Cass, the drink is one of three Korean alcoholic beverages referred to in the term "Korean booze trilogy", coined by music industry figure Danny Keir. In 2009, Korean importers in Japan began producing Makgeolli products, promoting them with the name makkori, the Japanese pronunciation of Makgeolli.[11] In 2011, several Japanese sake companies, including Gekkeikan and Tatenokawa, launched cloudy rice wines under the name makkori, and announced plans to export the products to Asia, America, and Europe.[12] Concerns were raised in Korea that this could lead to Makgeolli being mistakenly regarded as traditionally Japanese rather than Korean, as had happened in the 1996 kimchi-kimuchi case.[12] Makgeolli is the oldest alcoholic beverage in Korea.[4] Rice wine has been brewed since the Three Kingdoms era, which ran from the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE.[3] The consumption of rice wine during the reign of King Dongmyeong (37–19 BCE) is mentioned in the founding story of the kingdom of Goguryeo in Jewang ungi (Songs of Emperors and Kings), a 13th-century Goryeo Korean book.[13] There are a number of other early records mentioning rice wine in the Korean Peninsula. The Goryeo Korean book Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) mentions the brewing of yorye (醪醴, "cloudy rice wine") in the kingdom of Silla for King Suro of Gaya by his seventeenth-generation descendant in 661, in its section entitled Garakguk gi (Record of the State of Garak).[14] In the Jin Chinese book Sānguózhì (Records of the Three Kingdoms), the section Dongyi (Eastern Foreigners) of the Wei Shu (Book of Wei) contains the observation that "the Goguryeo Koreans are skilled in making fermented foods such as wine, soybean paste, and salted and fermented fish".[15] The Asuka Japanese book Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) makes reference in the section entitled Ōjin-tennō (Emperor Ōjin) to a man named Inbeon (仁番) from the kingdom of Baekje being taught how to brew wine.[16] And the poem Gōngzishí (公子時), by the Tang Chinese poet Li Shangyin, refers to Silla wine (新羅酒) made with non-glutinous rice.[17] During the Goryeo dynasty, Makgeolli was called ihwa-ju (이화주; 梨花酒, pear blossom alcohol), as the liquor was made when the pear trees were in blossom.[18] This was associated in many communities in Korea around that time with a tradition of all night drinking and dancing in special ceremonies. Makgeolli was brewed at home for centuries[3] and was considered a "farmer's wine", or rural working-class beverage.[2][5] The most-consumed alcoholic drink in South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s,[6][8] Makgeolli began to lose popularity in the 1970s with the rise of imported alcoholic beverages.[3] Government-enforced rice rationing in this period due to a national food shortage also led to Makgeolli being made with barley and wheat instead of rice, causing a sharp decline in sales.[8] As Makgeolli was considered cheap and old-fashioned, sellers then focused on selling quantity rather than quality,[3] with many Makgeolli companies turning to mass production. In this process, the rice wine is usually brewed with a non-traditionally manufactured fermentation starter instead of the traditional nuruk. It is also diluted with water.[3] In the 21st century, Makgeolli enjoyed a resurgence in urban areas and among younger generations.[2][8][5] The health benefits and low alcohol proof of Makgeolli, and a growing interest in cultural traditions in recent decades, have contributed to the revival.[3] The product continues to be inexpensive, a plastic, soft drink-style 750 ml (26 imp fl oz; 25 US fl oz) bottle costing around ₩1,200 ($1.09).[2][8][5] Today, novelty high-end Makgeolli are also being produced, using traditional methods free of artificial additives. There were at least 700 small-scale breweries in production in South Korea in 2017.[3] Makgeolli is made from rice using nuruk, a Korean fermentation starter.[6] Nuruk is a dry cereal cake that has been allowed to ferment and mature to promote the growth of molds producing hydrolyzable enzymes that decompose the starches of the cereal grain into sugar. This sugar is then used by yeast to produce alcohol through fermentation.[19] Different kinds of nuruk, made with different ingredients such as rice, wheat, barley, or mung beans, produce Makgeolli of a variety of flavors.[3][6] Steamed rice, nuruk, and sometimes additional flavoring ingredients such as corn, chestnuts, fruits, herbs, and flowers are mixed and left to ferment in onggi, the same permeable clay crocks used for making kimchi, soy sauce, and other fermented foods.[3][6] The brewing process involves two stages: seed and main mash and main fermentation.[20] Seed mash is the process of obtaining actively growing yeasts and enzymes in the mixture of yeast and nuruk.[20] The tastes and aromas of the main mash develop with the transformation of the rice-derived nutrients and amino acids.[20] Main fermentation lasts for about a week.[20] Makgeolli is best consumed fresh, a week or two after brewing.[3] When freshly brewed, it has a milder and creamier taste.[5] It acquires a stronger taste over time, and turns into rice vinegar after a couple of months.[5] Traditionally the wine was only created one way, but to reach out across the different age groups and for exporting purposes there are several different ways the wine is created. Once Makgeolli has been exported it can change as well. The wine changes over time and this is one of the things that makes it unique. Traditionally, Makgeolli is created unpasteurized. Many mass-produced Makgeolli are brewed with non-traditional manufactured fermentation starter instead of the traditional nuruk, and are diluted with water and contain additives such as aspartame. This gives the liquor sweetness without adding a fermentable carbohydrate, and thus increases shelf life.[3] Flavorings such as fruit and ginseng are also sometimes added. Makgeolli is usually served chilled, in a bottle or in a pottery bowl with a ladle.[5] Prior to drinking, it is stirred with the ladle, or the bottle is gently flipped upside down several times with the cap on, in order to mix in the settled sediment.[5] It is then ladled or poured into individual small bowls, rather than cups, for drinking.[5] This is because of the tendency of Makgeolli to split into a cloudy white fraction that settles to the bottom and a clear, pale yellow liquid that rises to the top. Makgeolli is often served with fried buchimgae, Korean pancakes, such as pajeon (made with scallions), haemul-panjeon (made with scallions and seafood), and bindae-tteok (made with mung beans and pork).[2][4] Consuming Makgeolli with these pancakes is a custom often associated with rainy days.[5] Makgeolli may also be mixed with ice and fruits such as mango and pineapple to make fruit cocktails, or with saida (lemon-lime drink) to make a simple cocktail named maksa.[5][4][3] Makgeolli mixed with kkul (honey) is called kkul-Makgeolli. Because of the microorganisms present during fermentation, Makgeolli is a probiotic product. It contains high levels of lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus, as well as vitamins, amino acids, and fiber.[3][3][8] With a 1.9 percent protein content, over 10 amino acids, vitamin B, inositol and choline, Makgeolli is reputed to increase metabolism, relieve fatigue and improve the complexion.[13] Dongdong-ju ("float-float wine") is a drink very similar to Makgeolli, but slightly creamier and with unfiltered floating rice grains. The word dongdong is an ideophone for a small object floating by. Ihwa-ju ("pear-blossom wine") is so named because it is brewed from rice with rice malt which ferments during the pear-blossom season.[18] Ihwaju is often so thick that it is eaten with a spoon. Dansul ("sweet wine") is a sweeter variety with partial fermentation. Chinese choujiu and Japanese nigori are rice wines similar to Makgeolli. Will the Circle Be Unbroken%3F"Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" is a popular Christian hymn written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon with music by Charles H. Gabriel. The song is often recorded unattributed and, because of its age, has lapsed into the public domain. Most of the chorus appears in the later songs "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" and "Daddy Sang Bass". The song is generally played to be uplifting to the congregation, and is a frequent standard in gospel revivals. The Ballad Index [2] notes that the tune now commonly sung differs substantially from the original tune by Gabriel. It also notes the first known recording of this variant, by the Metropolitan Quartet in 1927. A reworked version of the song, intended as a funeral hymn, was written by A. P. Carter and released in 1935 by the Carter Family. The Carter version, titled "Can the Circle be Unbroken", uses the same music and the same verse structure but with different verse lyrics and a modified chorus. That version has often been recorded as "Will the Circle be Unbroken", including the 1972 performance by Mother Maybelle Carter and ensemble on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album of the same title. The original version of the song does not insert "Lord" in lines 2 and 4 of the chorus,[1] though the Carter version does. Also, the third line of the chorus is phrased as a question in the original, but as a declarative sentence in the Carter version, and the Carter version as written begins the chorus with 'Can' instead of 'Will'. The Carter version is still under copyright. The Pointer Sisters and Nell Carter sing this song in an episode of Gimme a Break! titled "The Return of the Doo-Wop Girls" that originally aired on February 13, 1983. The song in its reworked version, "Can the Circle Be Unbroken," appeared in the 2004 film Iron Jawed Angels, although the film's website shows the original song as the title.[11] June Carter's rendition of the song plays over the Deadwood season 1 episode 8 closing credits. In the film 2012, the song can be heard on the family's way to Yellowstone Park. In 2012, Belgian film The Broken Circle Breakdown (also known as Alabama Monroe) used the song on its soundtrack. The song is covered in Treme season 2 episode 10, "That's What Lovers Do", at Harley's memorial service. A season 3 episode of Pretty Little Liars was titled after the hymn and featured the song within the episode. The hymn is sung every year at the Country Music Hall of Fame, at the conclusion of each medallion induction ceremony. It is performed by the inductees of that respective year as well as any previously inducted members of the Hall of Fame who are present. Two versions of the hymn are featured in the soundtrack for the 2013 video game BioShock Infinite: a traditional choir version, performed by Maureen Murphy, and an award-winning acoustic version performed by Troy Baker (guitar) and Courtnee Draper, the voice actors of main characters Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth, respectively. The use of the original lyrics was controversial: some commentators, apparently unaware of the differences between the original and Carter versions, criticized the omission of "Lord" from the chorus as anti-religious censorship. The choice was explained as simply being consistent with the 1912 setting of the game, at which point the word "Lord" had not been added.[12][13] The song won "the Best Song in a Game" award during the VGX 2013.[14] In March 2013, the score for BioShock Infinite contained "Will the Circle Be Unbroken (choral version)" with Ada Ruth Habershon, Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (2:56) on Track 3. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke joined Willie Nelson onstage to play and sing "Will the Circle be Unbroken?" among other numbers at Nelson's annual 4th of July picnic, in 2018.[15] 14 July 2019 in Nowlan Park Hurling Stadium in Kilkenny, Ireland Neil Young joined Bob Dylan on stage to play guitar and sing "Will the Circle be Unbroken?" together. Gag ConcertGag Concert (Korean: 개그콘서트) is a South Korean sketch-comedy TV show on KBS 2TV network, sometimes more commonly called Gag Con (Korean: 개콘). It began airing in September 1999 and is the oldest South Korean comedy program that is still running. The show is recorded on Wednesdays and airs on KBS 2TV on Sundays at 9:15 PM.[1] The show airs with English subtitles two weeks after it airs on KBS World TV on Saturdays at 6:00 PM.[2] Current comedians※ As of 4 January 2020 (2011.7.3~2019.7.21) ^Note 1: Currently does not appear as a main character in a skit, but is credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website.[3] ^Note 2: Kim Doo-hyeon is not credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website, possibly due to being a part of the 32nd class. On 12 August 2018, they performed in the skit, Bongsunga School.[4] ^Note 3: Kim Won-hyo is not credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website, despite performing in the skit Refreshing Statements.[5][6] ^Note 4: Yang Sang-guk is not credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website, although as of 8 July 2018, he performs in the skits, Call Center and So Touching.[7] ^Note 5: Lee Jae-yool is not credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website, possibly due to being a part of the 32nd class. As of 27 July 2018, he performs in the skit, Bongsunga School.[8] ^Note 6: Jeong Jin-ha is not credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website, possibly due to being a part of the 32nd class. As of 31 August 2018, he performs in the skit, Bongsunga School.[9] ^Note 7: Jeong Tae-ho is not credited as a comedian on Gag Concert's website. However, he has begun a new skit called Come On! recently, making a return to Gag Concert after two years.[10] * Source is the Gag Concert Production Website. 1st class (1982) 2nd class (1984) 7th class (1991) 10th class (1994) 12th class (1995) 13th class (1997) 14th class (1999) 15th class (2000) 16th class (2001) 17th class (2002) 18th class (2003) 19th class (2004) 20th class (2005) 21st class (2006) 22nd class (2007)[11] 23rd class (2008) 24th class (2009)[12] 25th class (2010) 26th class (2011) 27th class (2012) 28th class (2013) 29th class (2014)[13] 30th class (2015) 31st class (2016)[14] 32nd class (2018)[15] Ordered by ascending date according to the first airing time on the original channel "KBS 2TV". (Korean: 2020 생활사투리 Starring: Park Junhyeong,Kim Seongwon,Bae Jeonggeun,Kim Sideok) (Korean: 주간 박성광 Starring: Park Seongwang) (Korean: 셀럽언니 ,Starring: Jeong Taeho,Song Jaein,Im Jaebaek, Park Soyoung, Eom Jiyun) (Korean: 가짜뉴스 Starring: Yoon Hyeongbin,Park Daeseung,Kim Duhyeon,Song Jaein,Kim Wonhoon,Kim Taewon) (Korean:운수 좋은 날 Starring:Kim Daehui, Min Seongjun, Song Yiji, Jang Junhui, Lee Jaeyul,Song Jeungun) (Korean: 단골 로맨스 Starring: Kim Wonhun,Bok Hyeongyu,Lee Jaeyul, Lee Seunghwan) (Korean: 히든 보이스 Starring: Seo taehun, You Minsang, Park daeseung, Lee Gaeun (Korean: 콘서트 기타 등등 Starring: Jang Donghyuk,Lee Jaeyul, Gwak beom) (Korean: 절대 (장가)감 유민상 Starring: You minsang, Kim Hayoung, Lee Seongdong Song Youngil) (Korean: 쓴대로 간다 Starring:Jeong Jinha, Lee Seunghwan, Ahn Sangtae,Kang Yumi,Yang Seonil, Song Younggil) (Korean: 화려한 외출 Starring: Park Seongho,Yang Sangguk) (Korean: 2020뮤지컬 Starring: Shin Bongseon,Lee Dongyoon,Lee Seunghwan,Kim Jaewook) ※ Alphabetical order. The dates are according to the airing time on the original channel "KBS 2TV".[23] (Korean: "... ...", pronounced 점점점 점점점 (jeomjeomjeom jeomjeomjeom); Starring: Namgung Kyeong-ho, Kim Hui-won, Song Pil-geun, Yoo Min-sang) Featuring the awkwardness between a father and his daughter's boyfriend (future son-in-law). (Korean: 1대1; Starring: Yoo Min-sang, Jeong Yoon-ho, Jeong Hae-cheol, Lee Se-jin, Kim Tae-won, Seo Tae-hun → Lee Chang-ho | Previous Appearances: Kim Seong-won, Kim Won-hun, Lee Sang-hun) Parody of KBS quiz show 1 vs 100. The unique contestants frustrate the show host Yoo Min-sang. (Korean: 10초 극장; Starring: Hwang Hyeon-hui, Kim Dae-beom) (Korean: 10년 후; Starring: Heo An-na, Jeong Yoon-ho, Oh Gi-hwan, Kim Hyeon-gi, Kwon Jae-kwan | Semi-fixed cast: Jo Seung-hui, Kim Ji-ho | Previous Appearances: Im Woo-il) A loan shark tries to bully the proprietress of a small business into paying back a loan, after turning up at her store every day for ten years, he becomes part of her and her son's lives. On 21 December 2014, Lee Ain appeared as a guest for Christmas special. On 22 February 2015, Kim Minseok and Kim Gun-mo appeared as guests. On 8 March 2015, Im Woo-il, the security guard from Stubborn skit, who used to work under Kwon Jae-kwan appeared in the corner. (Korean: 301 302; Starring: Kim Minkyeong, Jeong Seunghwan, Jeong Jimin) Two neighbours who think about each other and are pushed together by their landlord. (Korean: 씁쓸한 인생; Starring: Kim Junho → Kim Daehui, Yu Sangmoo → Kim Junhyeon, Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin, Lee Seungyun) The title is based off the Korean film A Bittersweet Life; the skit is about a boss who suffers from his subordinates. This skit tied in with Kim Junho's 2009 gambling scandal, which cost him his television appearances and he had to lie low for a year. In Gag Concert's 700th episode special, Lee Munjae took over Yu Sangmu's role, and Kim Yeongcheol appeared as a special guest along with The Yellow Sea's scammers. On 28 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 1).[24]<[25] (Korean: 유치개그; Starring: Jeong Hyeongdon, Kim Jihye, Kim Kisu, Kim Daehui) (Korean: 어른들을 위한 동화; Starring: Kim Kyeong-ah, Lee Dongyun, Heo Min, Jeong Beomgyun, Lee Sangho) Retelling of Korean fairy tales to a modern adult audience. (Korean: 비정상 교도소; Starring: Im Jaebaek, Song Wangho, Kim Jeonghun, Seo Taehun, Kim Jiho, Lee Wongu, Kim Seongwon) ِA portrayal of what convicts do in their hour of free time. (Korean: 연기돌; Starring: Oh Nami, Kim Daeseong → Seo Taehun, Lee Suji, Im Seonguk, Kim Hoekyeong, Lee Sejin) An audition for a drama takes place and it attracts unique actors and actresses. On 21 May 2017, actor Kim Eung-soo appeared as a guest for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2).[26][27] (Korean: 남성인권보장위원회; Starring: Hwang Hyeonhui, Choi Hyojong, Park Seongho) (Korean: 그렇습니다; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Im Hyeokpil) (Korean: 엔젤스; Starring: Jang Yuhwan, Kim Jincheol, Lee Hyeseok, Eom Taegyeong, Kim Jongeun, Kim Minkyeong, Ahn Somi, Hong Yeseul) Funny portrayal of South Korea's idol fan culture. (Korean: 불상사; Starring: Park Yeongjin, Jeong Seunghwan → Park Soyeong, Kim Taewon, Song Wangho → Shin Yunseung, Im Jaebaek, Im Seonguk) About the newbie's first day at work where he meets his dysfunctional bosses. On 21 May 2017, actor Namgoong Min appeared as a guest for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2), acting as his character in KBS drama Good Manager.[26][27] (Korean: 동물의 왕국; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Oh Jiheon, Jeong Jongcheol, Jo Suwon) (Korean: 조선왕조부록; Starring: Park Jiseon, Kim Junhyeon, Yang Seonil, Jo Yunho) (Korean: 무섭지 아니한가(家); Starring: Oh Nami, Heo Anna, Song Yeonggil, Seo Namyong, Kim Huiwon) (Korean: 니가 인간이니? Starring: Jo Jin-sae, Hong Hyeon-ho, Park Jin-ho) (Korean: 핵존심; Starring: Kim Ki-yeol, Lee Sang-hun, Kim Hui-won, Jeong Hae-cheol, Ahn So-mi, Seo Tae-hun, Jeong Myeong-hun | Previous Appearances: Yang Seon-il, Jang Ki-yeong, Hong Hwon, Choi Jae-won) About men's pride which women hate. On 15 March 2015, models Oh Min-gi and Jo Seong-yeon appeared on the skit.[28] On 24 May 2015, cheerleaders Geum Bo-a and Kim Yeon-jeong appeared in the skit.[29][30] On 31 May 2015, Super Junior's Choi Siwon appeared in the skit.[31][32] On 20 September 2015, CNBLUE[33][34] along with the magician and actor Choi Hyeon-woo appeared as guests for Chuseok special.[35][36] (Korean: A-YO; Starring: Oh Jiheon, Chae Gyeongseon, Kim Jincheol) (Korean: 그땐 그랬지; Starring: Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin, Kim Jaewook, Jo Yunho, Kim Minkyeong, Ahn Somi) About grandparents who tell their granddaughter stories to explain how life was different back in their days. (Korean: 나쁜녀석들; Starring: Yoo Min-sang, Song Yeong-gil, Jeong Seung-hwan, Park Hwi-sun, Ahn So-mi | Previous appearances: Yang Sang-guk, Kim Na-hui) Gangsters trying to show off how bad they are. On 12 June 2016, Yang Jeong-won appeared on the skit as a guest.[37][38] (Korean: 불량엄마; Starring: Jeong Jaehyeong → Kim Kiyeol, Heo Anna, Yu Inseok, Kim Yeonghui, Lee Hyeonjeong, Lee Sejin) About three crazy mothers who are summoned to school because of their sons. Kim Kiyeol is the school counselor. Heo Anna, Yungi's mother, is a web broadcast host, BJ Heovely Mom, on 12 April 2015 the character was changed to be Kim Kiyeol's crazy crush from the past. Kim Yeonghui, Sangeun's mother, is an actress with Yu Inseok as her manager. Lee Hyeonjeong, Hyeoncheol's mother, is an inmate who is taking this opportunity to run away. On 26 July 2015, the actress Ye Ji-won appeared to promote her play.[39][40] (Korean: 두근두근; Starring: Lee Munjae, Jang Hyoin, Park Soyeong) Romantic corner about friends who are secretly in love, with the signature song The Cranberries's Ode to My Family whenever either one of them slips up regarding his/her feelings toward the other, before playing/shrugging it off in an attempt to appear nonchalant. The corner starts with SECRET's YooHoo. (Korean: 발레리NO; Starring: Jeong Taeho, Park Seongkwang, Lee Seungyun, Yang Seonil) (Korean: 춤추는 대수사선; Starring: Park Seongho, Kim Daebeom, Ahn Sangtae, Hwang Hyeonhui) Based on the Japanese police drama/comedy series of the same name. (Korean: BB 채널; Starring: Ahn Sangtae, Park Yeongjin, Park Seongkwang, Jang Doyeon) (Korean: 뿜 엔터테인먼트; Starring: Kim Wonhyo, Kim Jimin, Kim Minkyeong, Shin Bora, Yu Inseok → Jang Yunseok, Park Eunyeong, Kim Hyeseon, Kim Junho) Portraying in a sarcastic manner, the daily life of an entertainment company, its stressed and annoyed CEO, and their troublesome talents afflicted by the so-called "celebrity disease". (Korean: 내꺼하자; Starring: Kim Kiyeol, Park Sora, Yang Seonil, Kwak Beom) An investigation officer couple arrives at the victim's home to inspect for clues, but in reality they were checking out the house when they heard it's for sale. (Korean: 짐승들; Starring: Lee Seungyun, Lee Sangmin, Lee Sangho, Heo Kyung-hwan) Musical comedy; singing popular songs and showing physical strength as dance moves. A play on the term Beastly Idols (짐승돌) that is usually associated with 2PM. (Korean: 비트박스; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Jeong Jongcheol, Kim Sideok, Kim Kisu) (Korean: 꽃보다 아름다워; Starring: Jeong Jongcheol, Jeong Hyeongdon, Oh Jiheon, Kim Sideok) (Korean: 아름다운 구속; Starring: Seo Taehun, Kim Daeseong, Kim Hoekyeong, Ryu Geunji, Song Jungeun) About a detective who've trying to capture a criminal since a long time but they give off a romantic vibe as if it's a love story included "love triangle". On 26.July.2015, Song Jungeun joined the skit as the Chief and has been acting like "in-laws". (Korean: 갈갈이 삼형제; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Jeong Jongcheol, Lee Seunghwan) (Korean: 배꼽도둑; Starring: Kim Kiri, Lee Munjae, Lee Chan, Kwak Beom, Yun Hanmin, Park Yeongjin) About a comedian who doesn't want to come back on "Gag Concert" being persuaded by his former colleagues, and even though he claims he has forgotten how to do comedy, he still has the comedic touch. (Korean: 친한친구; Starring: Park Seongkwang, Kim Daeseong, Lee Dongyun, Jeong Haecheol) (Korean: 북두신권; Starring: Kim Daebeom, Kim Kiyeol, Shin Bongsun, Park Narae, Park Seongho) (Korean: 흑과백; Starring: Jeong Myeonghun, Seo Jiyeong, Choi Huiseon, Jang Ung) (Korean: 블랙 스네이크; Starring: Song Byeongcheol, Seo Namyong, Lee Sanghun, Lee Sangeun) On stage and in front of their fans, Black Snake is a devil worshipping death metal band. However, when backstage and in private the band members are quiet and unassuming, being deeply conflicted about the act they have to put on. (Korean: 배틀 트집; Starring: Kim Kiyeol, Yang Seonil, Song Jungeun, Lee Sanghun, Ryu Geunil, Song Wangho, Jeong Haecheol, Park Sora) Innocent Kim Kiyeol becomes the accused victim when during a press conference. (Korean: 막고 차고; Starring: Jeong Beomgyun, Kim Jiho, Jeong Taeho) Lessons about defense by Block (Jeong Taeho) and Kick (Kim Jiho). (Korean: 볼빨간 회춘기; Starring: Yu Minsang, Song Yeonggil, Yang Seonil, Kim Hoekyeong, Shim Mungyu, Hong Seonghyeon) Yang Seonil visits the new senior citizen center where he gets an induction by the older senior citizens around. (Korean: 꽃보다남자; Starring: Noh Ujin, Park Hwi-sun, Heo Kyung-hwan, Park Jisun, Han Mingwan, Oh Nami) Parody of the famous Korean drama of the same name. Guest-stars some of the actual actors from the drama. (Korean: 봉숭아 학당; Starring: See 봉숭아 학당) A skit about a school full of unique and vibrant characters. On 21 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2).[26][27] The skit was revived on 2 July 2017 with a number of comedians returning to the Gag Concert stage.[41][42] (Korean: 용감한 녀석들; Starring: Yang Seonil, Jeong Taeho, Shin Bora, Park Seongkwang, Park Eunyeong) Musical comedy. Brave Guys became famous and well known in 2012; they recorded many songs and the skit took 2012's Top Excellence Award for ideas. (Korean: 버스킹 어게인; Starring: Jang Giyeong, Kim Taewon, Im Seongwook, Lee Seunghwan, Jo Jinsae) (Korean: 빼박캔트; Starring: Kim Janggun, Park Sora, Kim Seunghye) A man who has to stay extremely focused because of his girlfriend's trap questions and unforeseeable reactions. (Korean: 남이 될 수 있을까; Starring: Jang Yunseok, Park Sora, Im Jonghyeok, Kim Seunghye, Ryu Geunji) (Korean: 황대장; Starring: Hwang Hyeonhui, Yu Minsang, Yun Hyeongbin) (Korean: 감수성; Starring: Kim Junho, Kim Daehui, Kwon Jae-kwan, Lee Dongyun, Kim Yeongmin, Kim Jeonghun, Kim Jiho) In the fortress of this kingdom, there consists generals who accidentally hurt the feelings of each other's sensitive hearts. On 8 April 2012, Jeong Yong-hwa made a solo guest appearance.[43] On 28 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 1).[24][44][25] (Korean: 꼬맨스; Starring: Lee Suji, Shim Mungyu, Park Jinho, Lee Sangeun) (Korean: 유행어를 전파하는 자 or 유전자; Starring: Park Seongkwang, Ryu Geunji, Jang Yuhwan, Park Bomi, Yang Seonil | Previous Appearances: Lee Sanghun, Kim Huiwon) A group of comedians who apologise for not making good catchphrases and blatantly pull out catchphrases from their head. Park Seongkwang: Ryu Geunji: Yang Sunil: Jang Yuhwan: Park Bomi: Kim Huiwon: Lee Sanghun: Guests: Catchphrases sent in from viewers: (Korean: 으샤빠샤!; Starring: Song Yeonggil, Kim Jeonghoon, Kim Hyeseon) (Korean: I 돌 I; Starring: Hong Hyeon-ho, Park Jin-ho, Yoo Min-sang, Shin Yoon-seung, Song Jun-geun) (Korean: 닭치高; Starring: Song Jun-geun, Lee Sang-ho, Lee Sang-min, Im Woo-il, Kim Jun-ho, Kim Jae-wook | Previous appearances: Ahn Somi, Kim Min-kyeong) Playful comedy corner about forgetful chickens who attend the Half marinated, half fried class in Chicken High School. On 7 September 2014, actor Cha Tae-hyun appeared as a guest for the Chuseok special.[45] On 28 December 2014, Defconn and Kim Jong-min appeared as guests[46] for the new year special. On 18 January 2015, actor Yeo Jin-goo appeared as a guest.[47] (Korean: 충무로; Starring: Lee Jeongsu, Kim Byungman, Jo Suwon, Eom Taegyeong) (Korean: 이.개.세 (이 개그맨들이 사는 세상); Starring: Jeong Beomgyun, Ryu Geunji, Park Sora, Song Yeonggil, Kim Minkyeong, Kim Jaewook, Heo Min, Kim Hoekyeong) Three skits within a skit, with the same material performed first by attractive comedians, then by ambiguous comedians who try very hard to be funny, and finally by big comedians. On 17 May 2015, Kim Junho appeared in the skit. (Korean: 호불호; Starring: Lee Wongu, Choi Hyojong, Hong Hwon) Gagmen try to persuade very specific types of people to join their fan club. On 20 September 2015, singer Kang Min-kyeong of Davichi,[48][49] actor Choi Phillip[50][51] and restaurateur Hong Seok-cheon appeared as guests for Chuseok special.[50][51] (Korean: 신사동 노랭이; Starring: Lee Sanghun, Kim Seongwon, Song Jungeun, Lee Jonghun, Song Pilgeun) Musical comedy with three song composers who wear yellow. The skit's title is transliterated as "Yellow Songwriters of Shinsa-dong" which is a parody of producer and songwriter Lee Hoyang (Shinsadong Tiger 신사동호랭이). (Korean: 편안한 드라마; Starring: Song Jun-geun, Hong Hyeonho, Yoo Min-sang, Jeong Haecheol) On June 1, 2018, Jimin (AOA) made a special appearance.[52][53] (Korean: 돌아와윰; Starring: Kang Yumi, Son Byeoli, Lee Seunghwan) Junior comedians attempt to convince Kang Yumi to return to the Gag Concert stage. (Korean 고발부부; Starring: Jo Chunghyeon, Lee Changho, Lee Hyeonjeong, Yu Minsang) (Korean: 촌's Love; Starring: Song Yeonggil, Kwak Beom, Hong Hyeonho, Hwang Jeonghye) (Korean: 후궁뎐 ; 꽃들의 전쟁; Starring: Lee Sanghun, Jang Hyoin, Kim Kyeong-ah, Kim Nahee, Oh Nami, Jeong Jimin, Lee Yerim, Jo Seunghui) Stories of concubines and their way of getting the king's attention. The skit is a loose parody of JTBC's Cruel Palace - War of Flowers. (Korean: 건달의 조건; Starring: Kim Jaewook, Yang Seonil, Jeong Chanmin, Kwak Beom, Hong Sunmok) (Korean: 핵갈린 늬우스; Starring: Jang Kiyeong, Son Byeoli, Lee Changho, Shim Mungyu, Lee Sangeun, Lee Hyeonjeong) A satirical skit about how the news is reported in North Korea as opposed to the South Korean side. (Korean: 요리하는 고야; Starring: Ahn Sangtae, Jung Seunghwan) Ahn Sangtae's comeback after five years of not appearing on Gag Concert. (Korean: 크레이지 러브; Starring: Seo Taehun, Park Seongkwang, Park Jisun, Kim Nahee | Previous Appearance: Kim Wonhyo) About a crazy couple with Paul Anka's Crazy Love as the signature song. (Korean: 주먹이 운다; Starring: Kim Byungman, Jeong Myeonghun) (Korean: 딸바보; Starring: Lee Seungyun, Kim Daeseong, Kim Hyeseon, Lee Jonghun) A father who is too over-protective and lavishing upon his "beautiful angelic" daughter. (Korean: 대학로 로맨스; Starring: Seo Taehun, Heo Anna, Yu Inseok → Jeong Seunghwan) A story of a performer in a Daehak-ro theater who broke up with her boyfriend and he is trying to get back to her. (Korean: 달라스; Starring KBS 29th Class Comedians (2014): Park Bomi, Kim Nina, Kim Seunghye, Choi Jaewon, Jeong Seungbin, Song Junseok, Lee Hyeonjeong, Im Jonghyeok, Hong Hyeonho, Lee Sangeun, Yun Seunghyeon, Jeong Jaehyeong) Remake of 'Differently' from 'The Gag Concert You've Never Seen Before' 2013's Chuseok Special. The skit is about inner thoughts at different situations. (Korean: 댄수다; Starring: Im Woo-il, Kim Jaewook, Heo Min, Song Jungeun, Lee Sangho, Hwang Shinyeong, Ahn Somi) A tango couple and a modern dance couple have conversations during their performance and demonstrates it through their dance. (Korean: 연애능력평가; Starring: Jang Yuhwan, Jeong Beomgyun, Shin Jongryeong, Park Seongho) Lessons about dating; Cheongdam Monkey Teacher (Jeong Beomgyun) solves dating problems, Tweezer Teacher (Shin Jongnyeong) plucks out funny facts, and Daechi Cleoparktra Teacher (Park Seongho) solves numerical problems. (Korean: 기울어가; Starring: Kim Minkyeong, Seo Taehun, Yang Seonil, Kim Hoe-kyeong etc.) On 20 May 2018, Fabien made a guest appearance.[54] (Korean: 귀막힌 경찰서; Starring: Song Wangho, Byeon Seungyun, Song Jungeun, Kim Jiho, Yang Sangguk, Park Yeongjin, Park Seongkwang) About incompetent policemen who don't do their work properly. (Korean: 징글 정글; Starring: Yu Minsang, Lee Dongyun, Kim Hyeseon, Ryu Geunji, Song Byeongcheol, Kim Daehui, Ahn Ilgwon) (Korean: 맛있는 한국어; Starring: Jeong Beomgyun, Song Jungeun, Sam Okyere, John, Saldor[55]) (Korean: 평양의 후예, Starring: Kwon Jae-kwan, Lee Changyun, Im Jonghyuk, Song Jungeun, Lee Changho) North Korean spies start to get too cozy pretending to be South Korean citizens. On 17 July 2016, KBS announcer Jeong Jiwon appeared on the skit as a guest. (Korean: 비호행, Starring: Song Yeonggil, Choi Jaewon, Park Sora, Jang Hana, Kim Hyeongi, Jang Yunseok, Lee Sangeun, Jeong Jaehyeong) Parody of the Korean zombie apocalypse thriller movie Train to Busan. Similar to the movie, the survivors need to head to the front carriage of the train, but the only way to get past the zombies is to say things to make the zombies feel mad inside. (Korean: 디테일 김; Starring: Kim Inseok, Lee Jaehun, Seo Taehun, Hong Gyeongjun) (Korean: 명탐정 송길동, Starring: Song Yeonggil, Jeong Seunghwan, Jeong Jinyeong, Lee Seongdong, Im Jaebaek | Previous Appearances: Park Eunyeong, Kim Nina, Song Jaein, Kwak Beom) Song Yeonggil plays "Song-lock" Sherlock and Jeong Seunghwan plays "Wat-seung" Watson to solve a murder, but are the two truly the famous detective duo? (Korean: 데빌스; Starring: Jeong Yoonho, Song Jeungeun, Song Wangho) (Korean: 어.그.봤 or 어제 그거 봤어?; Starring: Choi Hyojong, Kim Jeonghun) (Korean: 거지의 품격; Starring: Kim Jimin, Heo Kyung-hwan, Kim Yeonghui) A lady who is always being bothered by a handsome "flowery" beggar wherever she goes and is always ripping her off of ₩500 (the price of "curiosity"), and doing unsanitary things in front of her, and another beggar enamored towards the handsome "flowery" beggar while accusing the lady of being a gold-digger (original context: flower snake 꽃뱀). (Korean: 생활의 발견; Starring: Song Jungeun, Shin Bora, Kim Kiri, Kim Junhyeon) About a couple who break up in a serious but funny way. (Korean: 가문의 망신; Starring: Kang Seong-beom, Kim Sook, Lee Tae-sik , Lee Byeong-jin, Moon Se-yoon, Heo Seung-jae) (Korean: DJ변; Starring: Byeon Kisu, Jeong Beomgyun → Lee Gwangseop, Kim Junhyeon | Previous Appearances: Kwak Hangu) (Korean: 도레미 트리오 1; Starring: Jeong Hyeongdon, Kim Inseok, Lee Jaehun) Musical comedy. (Korean: 도레미 트리오 2; Starring: Jeong Hyeongdon, Kim Inseok, Yu Sangmoo) Musical comedy. (Korean: 일당뛰어; Starring: Kwak Beom, Oh Gihwan, Namgung Gyeongho, Shin Yunseung, Lee Changho) (Korean: 닥터피쉬; Starring: Yu Seyun, Lee Jonghun, Yang Sangguk, Song Byeongcheol) A skit about a rock band and their number 1 fan. On 21 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2).[26][27] (Korean: 님아 그 강을 건너지 마오, Starring: Kim Janggun, Lee Seongdong, Jeong Jaehyeong, Kim Nina) Lee Seongdong is finally released from prison, and he meets of a gullible elderly couple and a policeman who do things to tempt him. (Korean: 버티고; Starring: Kim Jiho, Heo Anna, Lee Seongdong, Ryu Jeongnam, Kim Janggun, Kwon Jae-kwan, Kim Hyeongi, Kim Junho) Remake of 'Don't Give In' from 'The Gag Concert You've Never Seen Before' 2013's Seollal (Korean New Year) Special. Three hopefuls wanting to land a role in a movie who have to endure being subjected to actress Heo Anna's physical hits. (Korean: 두분토론; Starring: Kim Kiyeol, Park Yeongjin, Kim Yeonghui) (Korean: 취해서 온 그대; Starring: Seo Taehun, Shin Yunseung, Kim Daeseong, Lee Huigyeong, Lee Jonghun, Lee Seungyun | Previous Appearances: Hong Yeseul, Kim Hyeseon) About a bartender who goes through a lot of trouble when crazy customers start showing up at his bar. A play on You Who Came from the Stars, as evidenced by Kim Hyeseon's character who acts like Cheon Songyi. On 7 September 2014, actress Kim Su-mi appeared as a guest for Chuseok special. On 14 September 2014, Let It Be members were customers at the bar. (Korean: 드라이 클리닝; Starring: Hong Ingyu, Yun Hyeongbin, Lee Jonghun, Kim Jiho, Jeong Gyungmi → Ahn Somi) Musical Comedy. (Korean: 덤앤더머 쇼 or 덤 앤 더머 Show; Starring: Kim Seongwon, Song Byeongcheol, Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin) Unique and unparalleled mime show featuring the twins working in unison to put on a slapstick performance; Kim Seongwon does the sounds and voices while the twins act them out. Song Byeongcheol is the translator. The corner starts with Willy Wonka's Welcome Song from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Korean: 이글파이브; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Hong Gyeongjun, Yu Sangmu, Byeon Kisu, Heo Donghwan) (Korean: 비상대책위원회; Starring: Kim Wonhyo, Song Byeongcheol, Kim Junhyeon, Kim Junho, Kim Daeseong) A bomb is about to go off but none of the officials seem cooperative. (Korean: 회의자들, Starring: Ahn Sangtae, Kim Kiyeol, Kim Nahui, Jang Kiyeong, Lee Wongu, Lee Changho) A quirky meeting between the boss and his employees as their company goes bankrupt. Not to be confused with skit of the same English title that aired in 2011–2012. (Korean: 내시천하; Starring: Jang Yoonseok, Kim Junho, Ryu Geunji, Song Yeonggil) (Korean: 주부 9단; Starring: Choi Hyojong, Hong Sunmok, Seong Hyeonju) (Korean: 일촉즉발; Starring: Yang Sangguk, Jang Kiyeong, Kim Kiyeol, Jeong Haecheol, Yang Seonil) About the sensitive interactions between soldiers from North Korea, South Korea, and the United Nations at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Yang Sangguk's comeback after one and a half years[56] of not appearing on Gag Concert. (Korean: 극단적 극단, Starring: Jo Chunghyeon, Bang Juho, Kim Seunghye, Ahn Sangtae, Lee Sangeun, Choi Heeryeong, Jeong Yunho, Jo Jinse, Jang Hana, Im Seongwook, Bae Jeonggeun) (Korean: 비트는 동화, Starring: Lee Sangeun, Lee Sanghun, Kwak Beom, Kim Hyeongi, Lee Sejin, Choi Huiryeong) Fairy tales told in a rap mixtape. The skit involves musical and lyrical parody of various Korean hip-hop songs by Korean rappers like Bobby, iKON and BewhY. (Korean: 사랑의 가족; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Jeong Jongcheol, Oh Jiheon) (Korean: 패션 7080; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Oh Jiheon, Park Hwisoon, Hong Gyeongjun, Yun Hyeongbin, Song Byeongcheol) (Korean: 패션 NO.5; Starring: Jang Doyeon, Heo Anna, Park Narae, Jeong Eunseon, Park Sora) (Korean: 아빠와 아들; Starring: Yoo Min-sang, Kim Soo-yeong) About an overweight father and son who think alike when it comes to food. (Korean: 우주 라이크; Starring: Park Yeongjin, Song Byeongcheol, Jeong Seunghwan, Song Yeonggil, Jeong Jaehyeong | Previous Appearances: Kim Nahee, Park Jisun) About stupid astronauts in space and their dreams of eating food like normal people. On 17 May 2015, Kim Nahee joined the skit. On 7.June.2015, Park Jisun joined the skit. (Korean: 안 생겨요; Starring: Song Yeong-gil, Yoo Min-sang) About two still single and alone guys who failed to get a girlfriend in their past 15 → 16 years. Song Yeong-gil was married on 8 June 2014, two weeks after the broadcast of the final episode of the skit.[57] (Korean: 최종병기 그녀; Starring: Lee Seongdong, Kim Huiwon, Kim Hyeseon, Kim Taewon) (Korean: 서툰 사람들; Starring: Yu Inseok, Kim Wonhyo, Song Jungeun, Hong Sunmok, Jang Hyoin) About nervous employees running a business for the first time who keep mixing up the customer's orders. Yu Inseok plays a first-time waiter, Kim Wonhyo, a first-time chef. Song Jungeun, a first-time restaurant-owner, Hong Sunmok, a first-time manager, and Jang Hyoin, the customer. (Korean: 깜빡 홈쇼핑; Starring: Kim Jincheol, Ahn Sangtae, Kang Juhui) (Korean: 꽃길밴드; Starring: Lee Sangmin, Lee Sangho, Park Hwisun, Ahn Somi, Park Soyeong, Kim Min-kyeong, Yang Seonil, Park Jinho, Son Byeoli) (Korean: 사대천왕; Starring: Hwang Seunghwan, Kim Byungman, Ryu Dam, Jo Suwon, Lee Sugeun, Lee Kyungu) (Korean: 네가지; Starring: Kim Kiyeol, Yang Sangguk, Heo Kyung-hwan, Kim Junhyeon, Lee Wongu) Problems faced by four → five (types of) men that the world (women in general) looks down upon, and their counter-arguments: unpopular men, country bumpkins, short men, fat men, and bald men. (Korean: 4인4색; Starring: Eom Taegyeong, Kim Kisu, Kim Sangtae, Oh Jiheon, Choi Huiseon) (Korean: 풀하우스; Starring: Jeong Gyeongmi, Yu Minsang, Heo Min, Kim Kyeong-ah, Kim Minkyeong, Kim Soo-yeong, Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin, Lee Seungyun, Jeong Seunghwan) About a family living in a house which is barely smaller than an average room, ergo, "Full House". (Korean: 까다로운 변선생; Starring: Byeon Kisu, Song Byeongcheol, Kim Kiyeol, Lee Jonghun, Kwon Jae-kwan, Park Junhyeong, Byeon Seungyun) (Korean: 슈퍼스타 KBS; Starring: Lee Gwangseop, Shin Bora, Heo Anna, Ahn Yoon-sang, Kim Jaewook, Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin) Musical comedy. (Korean: 개그J특공대; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Jo Seho, Lee Sugeun, Kang Juhui) A parody of KBS's VJs on the Scene [ko]. (Korean: 개그 대국; Starring: Park Seongho, Yun Seokju, Heo Donghwan, Jang Donghyeok) (Korean: 개그전사 300; Starring: Yun Seongho, 22nd Class | Previous Appearances: Jung Myunghun, Kim Daehui, Kim Junho, Lee Sugeun, Kim Byungman) Showcase of the 22nd class comedians, also a parody of the movie 300. (Korean: 불청객; Starring: Lee Sugeun, Kim Byungman, Jo Suwon, Ryu Dam) (Korean: 장군, Starring: Kim Sideok, Kim Byeongman, Lee Sugeun) A kingdom loves to celebrate their great general, Kim Byeongman. On 28 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 3).[58][59] (Korean: 게놈 프로젝트, Starring: Park Sora, Jo Suyeon, Park Eunyeong, Jang Hana, Kim Min-hee | Previous Appearances: Ahn Somi, Oh Nami) It has been 100 years since the extinction of men, and Park Sora leads a team of researchers to find out more about men and their habits. (Korean: 거제도; Starring: Shin Bora, Jeong Taeho, Kim Minkyeong, Kim Hoekyeong) (Korean: 일어나; Starring: Lee Chan, Lee Sejin, Kim Byeong-seon, Ryu Geunil, Lee Changho, Lee Hyeonjeong, Kim Kiri, Kim Huiwon, Kim Seongwon, Kim Nahui) (Korean: 군대온 걸; Starring: Kim Kyeong-ah, Jeong Myeonghun, Heo Anna, Hong Nayeong, Park Seongho) Remake of 'Girls in the Army' from 'The Gag Concert You've Never Seen Before' 2013's Chuseok Special. In the year 2157, women are now mandated by law to serve in the Korean military, and the skit portrays the funny side of female conscription. (Korean: 돌아가, Starring: Lee Sanghun, Jeong Yunho, Jeong Seungbin, Yun Seunghyeon) Lee Sanghun acts like a big boss alongside two of his lackeys and beat people up outside, but invites them home for them to find out their boss is complete opposite from a charismatic boss. (Korean: 고조쇼; Starring: Park Seongho, Jeong Beomgyun, Jeong Haecheol, Park Jisun) A skit interviewing Grandpa Go Jo (parody of the old-style sentence ender 고조), a very old yet still fit man who has lived way back since the 1894 Donghak Peasant Revolution. His friend entrance is followed by the signature song You Are My Destiny. Grandma Nae Rae (내래), parody of the old-style self-reference, is in some relationship with Grandpa Go Jo (an ambiguous relationship where one is not a couple "officially" yet acts like a couple). (Korean: 고! 스톱?; Starring: Kim Kiyeol, Jo Yunho, Hong Hwon, Kim Jeonghun, Im Woo-il) (Korean: 힙합의 신 (쇼 미더 뭐니?!); Starring: Kim Soo-yeong, Kim Nina, Ahn Somi, Lee Sangeun, Kim Hoekyeong, Kim Kiri, Park Bomi, Lee Sejin, Kim Huiwon, Kim Seongwon | Previous Appearances: Seo Namyong (Yang Grimy), Yun Seunghyeon (Missed Swings), Lee Changho (Buddhistablo), Park Eunyeong, Ryu Geunil, Jeong Jaehyeong, Kwak Beom, Hong Yeseul) Musical parody of Mnet's reality program Show Me the Money in a show named Show Me the What? (Show Me The 뭐니?) hosted by Hamburger Patty (Kim Soo-yeong). (Korean: 굿모닝 한글; Starring: Lee Huigyeong, Lee Jonghun, Kim Seongwon, Song Jungeun, Matthew Sleight) (Korean: 소름; Starring: Lee Chan, Seo Taehun, Song Jungeun, Jang Yuhwan, Kim Junhyeon) Horror stories that will give you chills in the middle of summer. (Korean: 할매가 뿔났다; Starring: Yu Seyun, Yu Sangmoo, Jang Dongmin) Yu Seyun is a playful kid who makes the elders around him work. On 21 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2) with Song Yeonggil instead of Yu Sangmu.[26][27] (Korean: 위대한 유산; Starring: Hwang Hyeonhui, Kim Daeseong, Kim Huiwon, Ahn Somi) (Korean: 조별과제; Starring : Park Sora, Shin Yoonseung, Ryu Geunji, Choi Huiryeong, Jang Yoonseok) (Korean: 수호천사, Starring: Hong Hyeonho, Jung Seungbin) Reading from a comic book, Hong Hyeonho wished for a guardian angel. But his guardian angel is not what he expected to be. (Korean: 헬스걸; Starring: Lee Seungyun, Lee Huigyeong, Kwon Mijin, Lee Jonghun) (Korean: 꽃미남 수사대; Starring: Lee Gwangseop, Kim Daeseong, Ryu Geunji, Kim Wonhyo, Park Seongho) Fashionista policemen are on their way to catch a criminal. (Korean: 헬스보이; Starring: Lee Sangmin, Lee Seungyun, Lee Sangho) A fitness project done between the 3 comedians. (Korean: 선배, 선배!; Starring: Lee Suji, Jo Suyeon, Jeong Myeonghun, Ryu Geunji, Kim Janggun, Park Seongho, Lee Wongu) About a student from Gag Concert University who has a crush on her senior and try to seek advice from an unconcerned friend. On 28 December 2014, EXID appeared as guests for the New Year's special.[60] (Korean: 허ㄹ or 헐; Starring: Seo Taehun, Park Sora, Oh Nami, Kim Nahui, Lee Suji | Previous appearances: Kim Nina) Seo Taehun's peculiar stories about his past loves. (Korean: 신랑입장, Starring: Song Byeongcheol, Kwon Jae-kwan, Song Jungeun, Yang Seonil) Some married men meet up to relate to each other's troubles in marriage. (Korean: 깐죽거리 잔혹사; Starring: Lee Dongyun, Heo Min, Ryu Jeongnam, Ahn Ilgwon, Jo Yunho, Lee Seongdong, Lee Changho) About a father and daughter who refuse to pay business protection money and use martial arts to evict the bad guys. A play on the movie Once Upon a Time in High School, whose original transliterated title is Maljukgeori Street's Cruel History. On 7 September 2014, DJ DOC's Kim Changryeol appeared as a guest for Chuseok special. On 2 November 2014, Taekwondo Demonstration Team appeared as special guests. On 9 November 2014, four vocalists (Kim Gyeonghun, Jo Wonil, Kim Yeongjae, Jeon Yeongju) appeared as special guests. (Korean: 숨은 표절찾기; Starring: Jeong Jimin, Park Eunyeong, Lee Sanghun → Song Jungeun, Kwon Jae-kwan, Lee Chan, Kim Byeong-seon) Meeting between drama production staff (Drama department) and Gag Concert staff (Variety Show department) to discuss phrases and actions plagiarized from Gag Concert and used in drama. (Korean: 고음 불가; Starring: Ryu Dam, Lee Sugeun, Byeon Kisu) Musical comedy. (Korean: 초고속 카메라; Starring: Yu Sangmoo → Lee Gwangseop, Yu Minsang, Byeon Seungyun) Portrays scenarios that shows more than meets the eye in slow motion. (Korean: 솔까홈쇼핑, Starring: Heo Min, Yu Minsang, Kwak Beom, Kim Nahui, Jo Chunghyeon) A home shopping channel that sells their products with utmost honesty. (Korean: 남량특집, Starring: Kim Seunghye, Hong Hyeonho, Lee Hyeonjeong, Seo Taehun) A man and his reluctant girlfriend seek shelter for the night. However, "scary" matters start to unfold, scaring the man in various ways. (Korean: 핫이슈; Starring: Jeong Beomgyun, Kim Jaewook, Yang Seonil, Song Jungeun) Reporters from Ctrl + c, Ctrl + v agency fishing for some breaking news that could be the headline even if they had to make up the news themselves. (Korean: 내 인생에 작업걸었네; Starring: Kim Wonhyo, Lee Gwangseop → Jeong Myeonghun, Kwak Hangu → Yang Sangguk) (Korean: 봇말려, Starring: Park Jinho, Hong Hyeonho, Ahn Somi, Seo Taehun → Kim Hyeseon) When your mail-order robots go wrong. On 21 May 2017, idols Momo and Dahyun from Twice appeared on the skit as guests for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2).[26][27] On 28 May 2017, rapper Jang Woo-hyuk appeared on the skit as guests for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 3).[58][59] (Korean: 부탁 좀 드리겠습니다; Starring: Kim Won-hyo) (Korean: 존경합니다; Starring: Seo Taehun, Kim Junhyeon, Song Byeongcheol, Park Jisun) About a congressman who decided to join the presidential election and has to deal with ignorant assistants who do not respect him, and a crazy wife, Yu Hyera (Park Jisun), who is a drama maniac. (Korean: 나는 아빠다; Starring: Park Seongho, Hong Ingyu, Song Jungeun, Kim Daehui) The difficulties a modern father faces being the family's breadwinner with young children. (Korean: 나는 킬러다; Starring: Yu Minsang, Song Byeongcheol, Kim Jimin, Song Wangho, Namgung Gyeongho, Kwak Beom, Shin Yunseung | Previous Appearance: Bok Hyeongyu) About 7 killers who always fail in their mission. On 12 April 2015, EXID's Hani appeared as the 7th killer.[61][62] On 19 April 2015, Jin Se-yeon appeared as a policewoman.[63][64][65] On 26 April 2015, AOA (Jimin, Choa, Mina) appeared as the 7th killer.[66][67] On 20 September 2015, actor Park Sung-woong appeared as a guest for Chuseok special.[50][51] (Korean: 속상해; Starring: Kim Jiho, Kim Minkyeong, Song Byeongcheol, Jeong Taeho) Jeong Taeho, who plays Sukja, Kim Jiho's aunt, tries to seduce her nephew's tutor, Song Byeongcheol. (Korean: 왕입니다요; Starring: Lee Munjae, Lee Sanghun, Jeong Seunghwan, Kim Seunghye, Park Sora | Previous Appearances: Bok Hyeonkyu, Song Junseok) A corner featuring scenes from Joseon dynasty, a king and his people. (Korean: 나 혼자 남자다; Starring: Park Seongkwang, Heo Anna, Seong Hyeonju, Kim Nina, Ahn Ilgwon, Jeong Seunghwan) About a new employee, the only straight male, in a company whose workforce is predominantly women, and who finds the company culture bizarre. A satire on male dominated workplaces in which women have to put up with macho, blokish "just be one of the lads" work cultures. On 28 December 2014, actress Cho Yeo-jeong appeared as a guest for the New Year's special. (Korean: 키컸으면; Starring: Lee Sugeun, Jeong Myeonghun, Jang Doyeon) The two short comedians talk about their struggles with a catchy song. On 28 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 3) and EXID's Hani, Junghwa, LE, and Hyelin appeared as guests for the skit.[58][59] (Korean: 인터뷰; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Jeong Jongcheol, Park Seongho, Sam Hammington | Previous Appearance: Oh Jiheon, Byeon Seungyun) (Korean: 땀복근무, Starring: Song Yeonggil, Lee Seongdong, Jang Kiyeong, Song Junseok, Heo Min, Park Sora, Kim Jeonghun) Song Yeonggil is a criminal being chased by policemen for his wrongdoings, literally on treadmills. (Korean: 놀고있네; Starring: Yu Inseok, Kim Hyeongi) Unemployed friends who use their imagination to portray their dreams. (Korean: KBS 스페셜 그것이 알고싶은 추적 60분 수첩; Starring: Kim Daehui, Hwang Hyeonhui, Im Jaehun, Jeong Yunho, Jeong Jimin, Namgung Gyeongho, Song Pilgeun) (Korean: 속보이스; Starring: Kim Junho, Yang Seonil, Jeong Jinyeong, Song Jeungeun, Jeong Seunghwan, Jeong Haecheol, Kim Hwaegyeong) On 21 January 2018, Kim Dong-hyun made a special appearance.[68] (Korean: 이거 실화냐?, Starring: Kim Kiyeol, Park Soyeong, Park Sora, Yang Seonil, Lee Wongu) Kim Kiyeol discusses about stuff people do that he simply cannot understand. (Korean: 재백아; Starring: Im Jaebaek, Lee Sejin, Lee Changho) About gangsters who want to make a living through honest labor. (Korean: 장스타 ent., Starring: Jang Kiyeong, Song Jaein, Kwak Beom, Namgung Gyeongho, Lee Sejin, Kim Taewon) "Jang Star" Jang Kiyeong runs an entertainment agency with his quirky idols and trainers. (Korean: 징크스, Starring: Lee Sanghun, Oh Gihwan, Lee Munjae, Lee Changho | Previous Appearances: Song Junseok) About some extremely passionate national athletes who attempt to eliminate the chance of a jinxed game later on. (Korean: 짠짠극장; Starring: Heo Seungjae, Jeong Myeonghun, Kim Yeongsam, Choi Huiseon) (Korean: 영화는 영화다, Starring: Kim Seongwon, Im Woo-il, Kim Taewon, Lee Sangeun, Kim Min-hee, Song Jaein, Jo Chunghyeon) Actors have several problems settling into their role during the filming of a movie. (Korean: 편하게 있어; Starring: Kim Junhyeon, Song Byeongcheol, Lee Jonghun, Lee Suji) Portraying the relationship between the boss and his employee outside of work. (Korean: 둘이서도 잘해요, Starring: Jang Yunseok, Kim Byeong-seon, Lee Suji) Two guy friends end up drinking by themselves after their other friends did not turn up, so they play drinking games by themselves, bitterly. (Korean: K-JOB 스타; Starring: Ahn Ilgwon, Park Seongho, Park Jisun, Im Woo-il, Kim Kiyeol, Lee Seongdong, Lee Jonghun, Song Jungeun) (Korean: 김시덕의 보이스 토크; Starring: Kim Sideok, Choi Guk) Kim Sideok appears as the host of the show interviews many celebrities, portrayed by Choi Guk. Choi Guk dresses as celebrities and instead of his actual voice, it would be voice recordings of the actual celebrity he was acting as. (Korean: 착한녀석들; Starring: Yoo Se-yoon, Oh Jiheon, Lee Jonghun) Introduces a trio who deliver their dialogue in a glib sly manner, before ending with an innocent twist. (Korean: 발명왕; Starring: Kim Byungman, Hwang Hyeonhui) (Korean: 이럴줄알고, Starring: Park Yeongjin, Song Jungeun, Yang Seonil, Song Byeongcheol, Jang Kiyeong) Two rivals know each other inside out, creating hilarious twists and turns in the skit because they "knew it would happen". On 5 June 2016, Lee Sang-min of Roo'ra appeared on the skit as a guest.[69][70] On 12 June 2016, UFC fighter Kim Dong-hyeon and UFC octagon girl Kim Ha-na appeared on the skit as guests.[71] On 19 June 2016, couple Im Yo-hwan and Kim Ga-yeon appeared on the skit as guests.[72] On 26 June 2016, Lee Su-geun returned to the show as a special guest on the skit.[73][74] On 3 July 2016, girl group DIA's Chaeyeon and Huihyeon appeared on the skit as guests.[75] On 10 July 2016, national marathoner Lee Bong-ju appeared on the skit as a guest.[76] On 17 July 2016, cheerleader Park Ki-ryang appeared on the skit as a guest.[77][78] (Korean: 우행쇼; Starring: Im Jaehun, Hong Hwon, Park Yeongjin) (Korean: 건국 이래 최고로 자랑스런 대한민국 전설의 미남 개그맨 정명훈 나가신다 길을 비키고 머리를 조아리고 만세를 외치고 풍악을 울려 어깨춤을 추고 콧노래를 부르며 스텝을 밟고 전 재산을 바치고 큰 절을 하여라 하지만 두번은 안 된다~ 들은 사람 손! 내리지 말고 흔드세요~안녕~, Starring: Jeong Myeonghun, Jeong Seunghwan, Song Yeonggil, Kim Jeonghun) 16-year comedian Jeong Myeonghun is expected to outshine the two other less-experienced comedians for a funny reaction to a situation, since he is so experienced. The skit title changes every episode to add on a few words each time. On 2 April 2017, Cosmic Girls appeared on the skit as guests.[79] (Korean: 사랑이 LARGE, Starring: Kim Minkyeong, Yu Minsang, Im Woo-il, Song Byeongcheol → Kim Hoekyeong) To this couple, what could be more important than food, even when they are facing a break-up? On 7 August 2016, actor Shim Hyeong-tak appeared on the skit as a guest.[80][81] (Korean: 라스트 헬스보이; Starring: Lee Seungyun, Bok Hyeongyu, Kim Soo-yeong, Lee Jonghun, Lee Changho) The goal of this skit "project" is to help Kim Soo-yeong lose weight and reach a two digit weight by losing 70 kg, and to help Lee Changho gain weight and bulk up to 70 kg. If this project fails, Lee Seungyun will quit Gag Concert for a month. On 29 Mar 2015, model Lee Yeon appeared at the end of the skit.[82][83] On 5 April 2015, trainer Jeong Ah-reum appeared.[84] On 26 April 2015, Kwon Mijin who was in Health Girl skit appeared.[85] On 3 May 2015, Lee Jonghun brought his friend to the skit. (Korean: 끝사랑; Starring: Kwon Jae-kwan, Park Sora, Jeong Taeho, Kim Yeonghui) Romance of middle-aged couple. Their signature song is Tae Jin-ah's 태진아#대표 앨범 [ko]. On 7 September 2014, Tae Jin-ah appeared as a guest for Chuseok special.[86] (Korean: 그냥 내비둬; Starring: Lee Sugeun, Jang Donghyeok, Song Byeongcheol, Kim Minkyeong) About two men watching a lovey-dovey couple from afar, making comments about them. On 28 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 3).[58][59] (Korean: 전설의 레전드; Starring: Seo Taehun, Lee Dongyun, Shin Bora → Kim Nahee, Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin, Kim Daeseong, Yu Minsang | Previous Appearance: Kim Taewon) Musical comedy about school life filled with various colourful characters. The skit starts with A Pink's No No No. (Korean: 렛잇비; Starring: Song Pilgeun, Park Eunyeong, Lee Dongyun, Noh Ujin) Musical comedy; office workers sing about work and their concerns to the tune of The Beatles' Let It Be. On 7 September 2014, real workers who have to work hard throughout the national holidays appeared as guests for the Chuseok special; Yu Changseon (a fireman who talked about poor drives and prank calls), Kang Hyejin (nurse), Lee Hyeonu (unemployed guy who hunts for jobs), and Jeon Jeongok (housewife, Park Eunyeong's mother). (Korean: 공부합시다; Starring: Kim Inseok, Kim Youngsam) (Korean: 생활교향곡; Starring: Lee Sugeun, Jeong Myeonghun, Kim Byungman, Hong Sunmok, Han Mingwan) (Korean: 가족같은; Starring: Kim Junho, Park Jiseon, Park Hwisun, Kim Daeseong, Lee Hyeonjeong, Lee Suji, Park Soyeong | Previous Appearances: Song Jungeun) A noisy family and their noisy daily life. On 24 April 2016, fitness model Ray Yang appeared on the skit as a guest.[87][88] On 1 May 2016, idols Tzuyu, Nayeon, and Jeongyeon from Twice appeared on the skit as guests.[89][90] (Korean: 로비스트; Starring: Ryu Geunil, Jeong Seunghwan, Park Jisun, Kim Minkyeong, Kwon Jae-kwan, Kim Seongwon) When all else fails in negotiations, the world's greatest lobbyists are in the unlikely forms of two middle-aged ahjummas who are good in persuasion at all costs. (Korean: 다시보기, Starring: Jeong Haecheol, Kwak Beom, Song Wangho, Im Jaebaek, Kim Nina, Lee Sangeun, Park Soyeong, Lee Wongu, Jeong Yunho, Lee Hyeonjeong, Lee Changho) Same subject, different perspectives. A skit about hearing what different people think or say about the same thing. (Korean: 고성방가, Starring: Jang Donghyeok, Lee Hyeonjeong, Im Jonghyeok) A skit about a noisy family with a father who is brusque, mother who always feels deceived, and son who has no interest in studying. Comedian Jang Donghyeok's return to comedy after 6 years. On 28 May 2017, singers Noh Sa-yeon and Lee Moo-song appeared on the skit as guests for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 3).[58][59] (Korean: 사랑의 카운셀러; Starring: Kang Yu-mi, Yoo Se-yoon) About a duo that demonstrates everything about being with your significant other. On 21 May 2017, the skit returned for the Gag Concert 900th Episode Special (Part 2).[26][27] (Korean: 사랑이 팍팍; Starring: Lee Seungyun, Lee Sangho, Lee Sangmin, Han Mingwan, Jang Doyeon) (Korean: 사랑 참 어렵다, Starring: Park Eunyeong, Kwak Beom) The boyfriend who made his girlfriend angry begs outside her front door for forgiveness, but he unluckily misses every single opportunity to prove that he's sincere. (Korean: 연인; Starring: Kim Ji-min, Yoo Sang-moo) The skit that first spread the rumours of Kim Ji-min and Yoo Sang-moo dating, later proving to be true.[91] On the last airing of the skit, actress Han Ji-min made an appearance. (Korean: 연인들; Starring: Lee Taesik, Kim Jihye, Kim Daehui, Choi Huiseon) (Korean: 하류인생 (下類人生); Starring: Kim Junho, Kim Dae-hui, Yun Seongho) Parody of the movie of the same name. (Korean:관리자들; Starring: Jeong Seungbin, Im Seongewook, Jang Hana) (Korean: 정여사; Starring: Song Byeongcheol, Kim Daeseong, Jeong Taeho) A salesman's woes regarding rich people, in particular Madam Jeong (Jeong Taeho), her daughter Sophie (Kim Daeseong), and their "pet" Brownie which is a stuffed toy husky. (Korean 매직 퍼포먼스; Starring: Kim Jaewook, Han Mingwan, Hong Sunmok, Lee Sangho, Park Narae) (Korean: 악성(樂聖) 바이러스; Starring: Kim Junho, Kim Junhyeon, Song Jungeun, Shin Goeun) Parody of the drama Beethoven Virus. (Korean: 만득이; Starring: Heo Min, Lee Munjae, Lee Seungyun) (Korean: 꽃샘주의, Starring: Lee Suji, Im Jonghyuk, Park Soyeong, Kim Nina) Park Soyeong and Kim Nina are determined to bully the new trainee teacher Im Jonghyuk, but he charmingly steers clear of them, even making the judo girl Lee Suji fall in love with him and save him from the duo. (Korean: 상남자들; Starring: Jeong Myeonghun, Kim Kiyeol, Jeong Seunghwan, Seo Taehun) Sore losers who cannot forget their past love. (Korean: 사마귀 유치원; Starring: Jeong Beomgyun, Park Soyeong, Hong Nayeong, Jo Jihun, Park Seongho, Choi Hyojong) (Korean: 미래에서 온 남자, Starring: Park Seongkwang, Park Yeongjin, Yang Seonil, Hong Hyeonho) Park Seongkwang's talk show about a man coming from the year 2087, but he comes with peculiar traits. (Korean: 마빡이; Starring: Park Junhyeong, Jeong Jongcheol, Kim Sideok, Kim Daebeom) (Korean: 유민상 장가보내기 프로젝트 or 유장프; Starring: Yoo Minsang, Song Yeonggil, Hong Hyeonho, Jeong Seungbin) A skit to marry off Yoo Minsang. 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