Outside an art museum during lunchtime in central Seoul, over 100 South Korean office workers, all glued to their mobile phones, were recently seen walking around, frantically tapping their screens – to earn pocket money.

IN A BID to garner popularity ahead of the election scheduled for February, the government has finalised plans to give more than 11 million low-income people free Internet SIM cards and other state subsidies that will together cost taxpayers billions of baht.