In the context of the recent revived debate on the need and ways to modernize the economy and innovative development of Russian society, special attention in expert communities has been paid to the so-called "Asian economic miracle". High rates of economic growth, rapid and large-scale renewal of technologies and infrastructure, which are characteristic at the turn of the XX—XXI century. Asian "tigers " and" dragons": Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and South Korea attract the attention of many researchers seeking to uncover the secret of successful socio-economic development and find role models.1 Keywords: social changes, modernization, South Korea, virtualization, glam capitalism. Especially impressive, even against the background of other "tigers" and "dragons", looks "Korean miracle". Half a century ago, South Korea was a poor agricultural country with a GDP per capita of $ 70 (1960), without large mineral reserves and not occupying an advantageous position on trade routes, and reached the level of per capita GDP of $ 1.6 thousand. already in 1980 and then rapidly advanced to the top twenty most developed countries, reaching the level of 10 thousand dollars in 1995 and 20 thousand dollars in 2005. At the same time, South Korea's economy is diversified, with a large share of high-tech products in its exports, and information and communication technology (ICT)-based products in terms of export volume it is one of the five world leaders [Tsvetkova, 2012]. The country successfully implements large-scale projects for the development of information and communication technologies and is among the world leaders in terms of the number of Internet users (82 per 100 inhabitants), the level of access to broadband Internet and the intensity of development of mobile communication technologies. Such a phenomenal economic progress and the transition of South Korea from an economically backward agrarian and war-torn society through intensive and largely forced industrializa ... Read more