On December 3, Gi Sik Bae, the CEO of Ridi Corporation, announced that the company has secured 8 million dollar investment from NeoPlux, Company K, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, the largest investment made in the e-book market. Ridi Corporation owns RidiBooks, Korea’s largest e-book retailer.
RidiBooks currently has 1.8 million registered users, with 300,000 book collection. It owns the largest ebook collection in Korea, and has recorded 32 million downloads up to date.
Jae Ho Cho, the department head at NeoPlux, led the investment deal. The high growth potential of Ridi books convinced him that the investment would have high return. He commented that he “was impressed by the customer-driven company culture and the employees’ talents” and that he “believes Ridibooks will build the competitive advantage over any bookstores with the investment.”
eBook is the major trend in the publishing industry, which generated nearly $4.5 billion in in the United States in 2013, led by the market leader, Amazon. In a recent article, Forbes estimated company’s Kindle eBook profits to reach between $265 million to $530 million annually. The eBook market in the United States and Europe takes about 30% of the global publishing industry, and continues to grow each year.
In South Korea, the recent passing of the fixed book price policy caused lots of buzz among the readers who search for better quality services. The policy went effective on the 21st of last month; it regulates the discount prices on books based on genre and published date. With this in mind, Bae, the CEO of Ridi Corporations, hopes to improve and leverage Ridibooks as the best eook retailar and invigorate the eBook market.
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