GQ KOREA iPAD Magazine introduction
With the fastest average internet connection speed and the best rate of internet access in the world, according to an Akamai report in 2nd quarter of 2010, South Korea is poised to be a world superpower of the internet.
In contrast to its IT infrastructure, digital contents business is still in its infancy. It is generally recognized that while Korean consumers are very
techy, they are also very picky and, when it comes to paying for digital
content, very stingy.
Meanwhile, i-PHONE entered to the Korean Market in 2009, two years after its first appearance. Belatedly, it boosted Korean Smart phone market and made a great sensation. The total number of Smart phone users in South Korea is closing on seven million, which flaunts an unprecedented and unrivaled rate of growth. Also, Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook usage soared in the last year. Followed by the huge success of Smart phone, a new game changer i-PAD was launched recently in November.
Major local news media groups have competitively released i-PAD applications and have met favorable responses so far. Besides major news media, magazine contents are doing poorly in app stores.A few magazine applications are available so far, but they are not much better than simple PDF scanning applications with free. Because developing digital magazine requires considerable investment and risk, the majority of Korean magazine companies cannot afford to do that.
Under those circumstances, GQ KOREA set to unveil its first digital magazine for i-PAD on App store in early January. A free version of GQ KOREA Digital magazine will be first released on January to give a digital experience to i-PAD users. Paid versions will be launched on March 2011 in time for its 10th anniversary in Korea.
In terms of design and engagement, it is overwhelming enough in Korean I-PAD contents market. The additions do contain various interactions and all the contents are resigned and optimized for I-pad including sounds and video clips. More contents and functions such as SNS, Scraping articles will complement the paid version on March 2011.
Launching of interactive digital magazine will be experimental and have industrial significance in Korean market. It would be the first attempt, in Korea, to republish digital magazine in its own name making contents valuable. GQ Korea believe they can charge stingy Korea readers for valuable content on the GQ iPad magazine. That is the only way to turn digital publishing into a long term business model. As for a new venture in digital publishing in Korea, the attention is focused on its success or not.