HARTSDALE, N.Y., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Paving the way to tap into the thriving global Korean community, koreanday.com -- a division of the-day.com companies -- has launched a web site, aimed at businesses and the community. koreanday.com is believed to be the ethnic community's first bilingual web magazine to offer a variety of content ranging from high fashion to useful business tips.
``Koreans, who tend to be 'Net savvy, own more than 69,000 businesses in America with annual sales exceeding $7.6 billion, and the average Korean-American household has a reported income 12% higher than the U.S. average,'' notes Glenn D. Slovenko, CEO, who launched koreanday.com with partner Jai V. Bae, a native of South Korea. ``Koreans are extremely homogeneous and ethnocentric, and tend to conduct business through relatives and other members of the Korean Community. They are loyal consumers with appreciable purchasing power.''
Ms. Bae, koreanday.com's publisher, says the decision to utilize a bilingual format presented significant technical challenges, but positions the webzine in a unique niche. ``Although Korean Americans have successfully assimilated in American and other societies, they take great pride in their own written language, Hangul,'' she explains. ``There are an estimated 75 million Korean-speaking people in the world who can now receive information in either Korean or English from our Webzine. We are working very hard to serve fellow Koreans wherever they may be.''
koreanday.com is updated several times each week. The site features links to a bilingual online auction and downloadable music clips, as well as such timely articles as ``Running a Family Business,'' ``I Had Learned to Hate Exercising But Not Anymore,'' and interviews with Korean youths starting out on their careers in America. Visitors can also conveniently sign up for such offers as AT&T Long Distance at 7 cents a minute or AT&T WorldNet Service with free Internet access for one month.
``We extensively polled and surveyed the Korean community before launching koreanday.com,'' says Ms. Bae. ``In addition to discovering the preference for a bilingual publication, we also found that most Koreans enjoy information on business, music, style and relationships presented in a light format that can be read for relaxation. Based on this information we tailored koreanday.com to offer a mixture of trend-conscious and business-related material.''
Initial feedback, in the form of e-mails, telephone calls, and comments at promotional events has been ``simply excellent,'' according to Ms. Bae. ``Koreans from as far away as Tonga and Russia have told us that they've waited a long time for something like this,'' she says. ``And many potential advertisers are sending us inquiries. We look forward to continuing koreanday.com and expanding our format.''
Headquartered in the Westchester County town of Hartsdale, NY, the-day.com companies offers online publishing, auction and commercial sites in addition to koreanday.com.
The site's graphics were designed by Woodpile Studios of Alexandria, Va., one of the nation's leading graphic design firms and a frequent vendor for such high-profile businesses as America Online and American Express. Another renowned team, spearheaded by InfoMech Internet Technologies of Alexandria, Va. -- the creators of Nabisco and Panasonic web sites -- met the technical challenges of creating a site that is fully functional in two languages with two completely disparate character sets. <1x-- TextEnd -->
SOURCE: koreanday.com