The South Korean government will provide financial support to replace ActiveX on up to 100 sites operated by government agencies.
Microsoft's ActiveX control was launched in 1996 by Microsoft as an innovative "tool" to extend the functionality of Internet Explorer and provide users with a wider range of supported tasks that can be performed online. However, 19 years later, it is quite clear that all of this has become painful in terms of security, performance, and reliability.
South Korea is one of the countries that still relies on ActiveX for online shopping, which is somewhat worrisome for local businesses and users, but the government has reportedly prepared a plan that will help the state finally abandon Microsoft's technology and move to more secure alternatives within the next 2 years.
The South Korean government is willing to pay up to $90,000 (€70,000) for each website still using ActiveX controls, in order to make sure the new technologies are adopted by 2017, and according to Korea Joongang Daily, there are more than 100 sites operated by government agencies that need to be updated.
Replacing ActiveX with HTML5 is one of the priorities, local authorities said, but the country also plans to provide more than $3.2 million (€2.5 million) to private entrepreneurs who can create alternatives in a range of sectors, including multimedia and payment services.
Currently, ActiveX keeps Internet Explorer at the top of browsers in the country, but there is a significant reason for this.
Laws in South Korea force online shoppers to use Internet Explorer because ActiveX is mandatory for all services that sell products online, so turning to Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is not an option at this time in the country.
More than half of the country's internet users use Internet Explorer to browse the web, while Chrome and Firefox are far behind on the charts.
This could change very soon, however, if the anti-ActiveX fight continues, so we expect Microsoft to aggressively promote Spartan in South Korea (and the rest of the world) in order to secure its market share.
