South Korean govt to provide financial support for ActiveX replacement on up to 100 sites operated by state departments

Apr 2, 2015 06:06 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft's ActiveX control was launched in 1996 by Microsoft as an innovative way to expand the functionality of Internet Explorer and provide users with a wider array of supported tasks that can be performed online, but 19 years later, it's pretty clear that it has all become just a pain in the neck in terms of security, performance, and reliability.

South Korea is one of the countries that still rely on ActiveX for online shopping, which is kind of worrying for local companies and users, but the government has reportedly prepared a plan that would finally help the state give up on Microsoft's technology and go for more secure alternatives in the next 2 years.

The South Korean government is willing to pay up to $90,000 (€70,000) to each website that still uses ActiveX controls in order to make sure that new technologies will be adopted by 2017, and according to Korea Joongang Daily, there are no less than 100 sites currently operated by state departments that need to be updated.

Replacing ActiveX with HTML5 is one of the priorities, local authorities said, but the country is also planning to provide more than $3.2 million (€2.5 million) to private developers who can create alternative solutions for ActiveX for a number of sectors, including multimedia and payment services.

Internet Explorer, the number one browser in the country

Right now, ActiveX keeps Internet Explorer the top browser in the country, but there's one big reason that makes this possible.

Laws in South Korea oblige online shoppers to use Internet Explorer because ActiveX is mandatory on all services selling products online, so turning to Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is not an option right now in the country.

More than half of the country's Internet users rely on Internet Explorer to browse the web, while both Chrome and Firefox are very far behind in the charts.

This could change very soon, however, if the anti-ActiveX race continues, so expect Microsoft to aggressively push Spartan in South Korea (and the rest of the world) in order to make sure that its market share won't collapse in the browser industry.