Major S. Korean publishers, bookstores create e-book firm

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- A group of major publishers and on- and off-line
booksellers in South Korea founded an electric book firm on Wednesday, the new
publishing body said in a release.
The Korea Electronic Publishing Hub (Korea E-Hub) has been joined by publishers
Halgilsa, Biryongso, Book 21 and bookstores Yes 24, Aladdin and Bandi & Lunis, as
well as the vernacular daily JoongAng Ilbo. The firms named Aladdin President Cho
Yoo-sik as the head of the new company.
Korea E-Hub plans to come up with its own e-book format targeting different kinds
of mobile phones and to start its service by January next year.
"This will be a meaningful establishment in and out of the domestic market," the
company said in the press release.
An e-book, first created in 1971, is a digital media equivalent of a conventional
printed book, sometimes protected with a digital rights management system.
E-books are usually read on personal computers or mobile phones.
Although numerous e-book formats emerged and were promoted over the past decades,
they have yet to achieve global distribution with only two e-book readers
dominating the market so far -- Amazon's Kindle and Sony's PRS-500.
South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world with a large majority
of households connected to broadband Internet and some 80 percent of the
population owning cellular phones. The country has seen new book sales trends in
recent years with a large number of readers turning to on-line bookstores.
E-books, however, have remained relatively unpopular here.
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)