Korea Turns a Page with E-Books

With 60 percent of the Korean population on smartphones and a growing number on phablets and tablets, more people are supplementing or even replacing traditional books with electronic versions.

Perhaps in response to this, Google has selected Korea as the first Asian country to launch its e-book business, according to the Korea Herald. The Internet giant has created a new “Play Book” category on its mobile app store called Google Play.

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Google will be partnering with local publishers to offer readers books on Android smartphones. Some of the publishers include Woongjin, Ridibook and Munhakdongne Publishing.

According to the Korea Electric Publishing Association, the Korean e-book market was about 289.1 billion won (about $255 million) last year. The association also predicted that the market would double in size in 2013 and make up 20% of the total publishing market at that point.

We’ve mentioned before that the Korean government aims for schools to make a complete switch to e-books from traditional textbooks by 2015.

Do you have a preference? Traditional books or e-books? Let us know in the comments.