E-Book Industry Trends in Korea
Kiyoung Chang
Published online: 13 August 2013
� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract The role of e-books in Korea has been a puzzle for the rest of the world
due to its late acceptance and development in a country that has such a highly
developed and wide ranging computer based technologies. The article provides a
twenty-year history with a focus on the past 3 years of the emergence of the e-book
and related smart phones as prime platforms and then the related development of
content. The review also includes the entry of international players such as Ama-
zon’s Kindle, Apple and Google with a summary of trends as the role of e-books
continues to evolve.
Keywords Amazon � Android system � AniPang � Apple � Barobooks � Google �KAKAO � Kyobo Books � Naver News � Ridibook � Smart phone � Samsung �TStore � Yein Information � Yes24
The e-book industry was introduced in Korea in the mid-1990s when Yein
Information and Barobook started e-book services after which the Korea Electronic
Book Publishing Association was established in 1992. For the past decade, e-book
content was read only on a desktop computer and a laptop computer. For this reason,
there were complaints that e-books lacked sufficient contents and readability was
poor compared with that of printed paper books.
However, since 2011, fundamental changes have taken place in the e-book
industry. In 3 years after Amazon of the U.S. released the Kindle, as a specific
e-book reader in Korea, sales of e-books surpassed the sales of other e-books in
different markets.
K. Chang (&)
Korea Electronic Publishing Association, Chungrim-Art Space 3, 4F Monbal-dong,
173 Hoedong-gil, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do 413-120, Korea
e-mail: [email protected]
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Pub Res Q (2013) 29:244–251
DOI 10.1007/s12109-013-9323-6
In Korea, there have been lots of meaningful changes since smart phones and
tablet PCs were introduced. More than 35 million smart phones and two million
tablet PCs came into wide use. Distribution companies emerged such as Kyobo
Book, Yes24, SK Planet (Tstore), Barobook, U Paper, and Book Cube Networks,
Initial Communications (RidiBooks). We expect to see higher sales growth rate of
e-books than last year.
In 2012, the sales of Kyobo Book amounted approximately 15 billion won this
year’s sales are expected to exceed 40 billion won. The sales of Yes 24 amounted
about 5 billion won in 2012 and 10 billion won this year. And the sales of Book
Cube Networks recorded 9 billion won in 2012 and the sales are expected to double
in year 2013 to amount 18 billion won.
According to ‘‘Smart Content Market Research 2012’’ published by Korea Creative
Contents Agency (KOCCA) in March, 2013, the market size of the smart contents of
the world was about 136.8 billion dollars in 2012, and it is expected to be 229.3 billion
dollars in 2015 with the annual average growth rate of 18.8 %. Korea’s market size of
the smart contents was 1.9472 trillion won in 2012, and it is expected to grow to
amount 3.5399 trillion won in 2015 with the annual average growth rate of 22 %.
By genre, the global market size of the smart contents is 30.1 billion dollars in
games, 15.2 billion dollars in edutainment, 9.2 billion dollars in music, and 8.9 billion
dollars in e-book and video, respectively, which suggests that cultural contents
account for 83.5 % of the market. The share of games, e-book, music, video and
edutainment is also large in Korea, even though there are small differences between
genres. The share of the market size is similar to the global trend (Table 1).
With these changes, printed paper book publishing companies which were
doubtful about e-books began to participate in the e-book business. E-book contents
increased sharply from about 100,000 to more than 150,000 titles, and the number
of e-books as separate volumes is expected to be more than 200,000. As terminal
units come into wide use and contents increases, the number of readers who buy
e-books again grows in a directly related cycle.
These changes create several key issues this year, which did not exist before.
First, the sales of e-books began to exceed 10 % of paper book sales, even though
the growth is limited to some contents such as app-books. Second, the number of
e-book companies run by one person is sharply increasing. Third, large companies
began to enter the e-book market that has been the area of the small and medium
size companies. Fourth, following electronic dictionary and electronic books of
separate volumes, digital textbooks began to come to the fore. Fifth, global
competition in the e-book market is beginning. Amazon, Google and Apple entered
the markets in North America and Europe year ago and now they are entering the
Asian market this year. Google opened an e-book platform in Korea for the first
time in Asia, and Amazon also established a corporation in Korea.
Smart Device, Putting Wings to Contents
In Korea, 30 million people use smart phones. The accurate number of smart phone
users is 33.73 million as of the end of 2012. The growth rate of the number of users
Pub Res Q (2013) 29:244–251 245
123
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246 Pub Res Q (2013) 29:244–251
123
suggests that within one or 2 years, all Korean people would use smart phones. As
smart phones became popularized, most contents related to daily life are
concentrated into the format of smart phones in the hands of people. Music,
videos, books, magazines, newspapers and all the other information are being put
into smart phones as if they are being sucked into a huge black hole (Fig. 1).
It did not take long before the current phenomenon to happen. Six years ago, the
smart revolution from iPhone was the starting point. Apple opened a new path that
has not been developed by anyone else. And the path is not just for Apple anymore.
Ten’s of thousands developers are offering contents to the Apple App Store or
iBooks, and millions of consumers taking the path together to access the
information. And it is also the path for the consumers using Android phones.
Global Market: Platform War for Contents
The ‘‘smart’’ contents market is growing at a remarkable speed with the popularization
of smart phones, tablet PC, smart TV, and other smart devices. It is a large ecosystem
where platform businessmen, contents providers, and consumers exist together.
As Amazon made a global hit with Kindle and e-book, Apple occupied the smart
phone market in an instant with iOS operating systems, combined with iPhone and
iPad. And Samsung Electronics and Google which entered the market belatedly
behind Apple are exceeding Apple with the Android operating system.
What is noteworthy is that in this global market platform war, the hegemony in
the global IT market is going from hardware companies such as IBM, HP, Samsung
Electronics and LG electronics to companies having software power such as
Google, Apple, and Amazon.
Fig. 1 Different content and formats for the children’s book market
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And the game which will be seen right after the platform war is the contents war.
Google acquired Motorola to brace itself for patent war, but the ultimate reason for
the acquisition is that it wanted to establish a system similar to Apple ecosystem
which combines devices and contents. Amazon started with the e-book, and it is
expanding its various contents based on KindleFire HD. Microsoft also released
Windows Surface tablet pc based on Windows 8, and it is preparing itself for the
contents war by investing in Barnes & Noble. Samsung Electronics is also following
this trend in Korea (Table 2).
Korean Market: Content Strategy Competition of Google/Apple on OS Base
As domestic businesses have no independent operating system, they have to survive
the current competition on the base established by Apple and Google, and have to
develop themselves. After all, domestic businesses need to focus on contents
relevant and related to the culture of Korea.
Thirteen years ago, in an era of cable Internet, there were outstanding portal sites
such as Daum and Yahoo Korea. There was a fierce competition to become the top
portal site between Daum with e-mail service, Hanmail as a competitive power, and
Yahoo Korea with sufficient capital from headquarters as a competitive power.
Naver, a late comer, introduced ‘‘Doosan Encyclopedia’’ with a dreary search
engine. And Naver fascinated elementary school students throughout the nation,
who use the portal site for homework, and the traffic began to increase by geometric
Table 2 2012–2013 Platform Size in 2012–2013
Device Operating
system
Contents
platform
No. of
contents
Share of
operating
system (%)
Apple iPod iOS AppStore (APP) 770,000
(APP)
18.8
iPhone iBooks (e-Book)
iPad iBook-Author
(Textbook)iPad Mini
Amazon Kindle
KindleFireHD
Android Amazon Kindle 1 million
(e-Book)
68.8
Google Nexus7 Android Google Play
(APP, e-Book)
700,000
(APP)
68.8
Nexus10 5 million
(e-Book)
Samsung
Electronics
Galaxy Series
GalaxyNote10.1
Android Samsung Apps 80,000 68.8
Microsoft Windows Surface Window8
(winPhone
included)
AppStore 20,000
(APP)
2.5
Source IDC
248 Pub Res Q (2013) 29:244–251
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progression. Realizing the power of contents, Naver started to build various contents
archives including news and expert knowledge. As a result, it became the
indisputable top portal site (Fig. 2).
Naver is the leader of contents in the era of cable Internet and KAKAO is
growing at a terrific speed to become the contents leader in a mobile era. Naver
succeeded in trying contents archiving in a search engine, and KAKAO became a
success by combining SNS with contents.
KAKAO occupied the platform through KAKAO Talk, SNS service and its sales
amounted to half of the sales of NAVER through AniPang, game service. AniPang is a
simple game of matching more than three animal characters within 1 min. As it is easy
and simple, anyone can enjoy it and become easily addicted to it. Because of these
characteristics, it is safe to say that there is no one who does not know this game
regardless of age from elementary school students to the elderly. In particular, it is being
widely enjoyed by housewives who were not accustomed to using a computer (Fig. 3).
Recently, KAKAO started a service called PageStore followed by AniPang. It is
similar to the e-book in terms of the form, but it is easy to create on the web, and
lighter in terms of volume and less expensive than any e-book service. The service
divided the e-book to meet the needs of young people who prefer reading short
Fig. 2 Naver News contents archive of the World’s highest standard
Fig. 3 KAKAO AniPang/PageStore
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writings to long ones and it combines music and video in an e-book. For these
reasons, it is a representative contents strategy in this mobile era.
Consumer: Evolved to Become Playsumer and Participating as ContentsCreators
When it comes to smart phone, tablet PC, and smart TV, Korean consumers are
world-renowned early adopters. The change rate of mobile phones each year is at a
relatively high rate of 67.8 %, but there is a unique reason behind the short loyalty.
The originality of Korea’s mobile phone users is evidenced by various
applications made in large quantity by Korean developers on the smart contents
platform, and 1,500 e-book new contents created daily. Consumers use smart
contents in wide range of areas in daily life such as games, reading, transportation,
SNS, medical service, tourism, and finance.
In the meantime, according to definition of consumers by Alvin Toffler, the
Korean consumers’ pattern went beyond prosumer and became playsumer
(proactive participants who evolved from prosumer, consumers who are interested
in trends and to enjoy contents as if they play).
In addition, regarding contents consumption, consumers share content or
information with friends and spread them in the form of ‘cooperative consumption’
rather than owning them for themselves. For instance, recently launched KAKAO’s
PageStore provides service which allows consumers to see contents for free when
they recommend it to friends.
It is not that only the patterns of contents use among consumers are changing.
Consumers are increasingly participating in contents creation. In the case of
Table 3 Korean users’ original smart contents utilization
‘Smart wallet’ which includes all the cards in the world is an original application and its originality
exceeds that of transportation card system. Coupons, housekeeping books, and gift certificates are
integrated in the smart wallet
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) developed ‘Ginie Talk’, an automatic
interpretation application of between Korean and English, and the number languages serviced in the
application will be increased to eight
Map applications of Naver and Daum provides more sophisticated and user-friendly service than
Google application
Game (AniPang) integrated with SNS, Social commerce (Coupang and Ticket Monster) integrated
with SNS
‘Genre rental store’ of Barobook, which replaces book rental stores and ‘Saem’ service of Kyobo
Book
\Services provided to Playsumers[
‘December24’, a beauty & health store, runs ‘self-makeup service zone’. Consumers are able to try
cosmetics without any charges
‘Concierge’, a shop specialized in digital appliances, runs stores which allow consumers experiences
products themselves. Consumers are able to enjoy shopping as if they play and they are provided
customized service when they want it online
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e-books, there is a service supporting ‘self-publishing’ in Kyobobook, U Paper, and
Barobook. Not only genre literature authors and cartoonists, but also white-collar
workers are flocking to the service. They are familiar with Internet culture and they
understand well multimedia and multi-channel of new media. I am certain that they
will open the era of genuine contents alchemist in the 21st century. More changes
are and will take place in Korea’s e-Book industry in the coming years (Tables 3, 4).
Table 4 Korea Electronic Publishing Association
Korea Electronic Publishing Association was established in 1992. It is the representative private
organization in Korea and led Korea’s e-book industry for the past 21 years. Korea Electronic
Publishing Association supports e-book business of publishing companies and contents companies
through three centers such as Electronic Publishing Education Center, Electronic Publishing Support
Center, and Electronic Publishing Certification Center. In particular, Electronic Publishing
Education Center fosters about 500 experts of e-book every year
Korea Electronic Publishing Association conducts specialized businesses through ten specialized
committees such as Academic Journal Committee, Digital Comics Committee, Education Business
Committee, Distribution Committee, Global Committee, E-learning/Digital Textbook Committee,
Contents Committee, Public Project Committee, Solution Committee, and Electronic Publication
Certification Committee
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