Seoul, KOREA ¶ Jan 08, 2012 (Whowired) -- LG U-Plus (www.lguplus.com), the value-added telecom service provider, revealed on January 8 that it had launched the “U+ BookMarket” application that allows users to read e-books on a single handheld viewer. The company is the largest e-book seller in Korea with a total of 130,000 books in its library through alliances with other e-book vendors such as InterPark, YES24, Aladin, and BookCube.

Lee Kap-Soo, the head of the media business division at LG U-Plus, said, “Based on our extensive e-book library, we can offer a better service to our readers at competitive prices. We are committed to further developing the market by expanding into rental and personalized publishing markets.”

In 2011, Korea’s e-book market is estimated at around 40 billion won (approximately US$34.5 million). It is expected to grow up to 60 billion won in 2012, followed in 2013 by 120 billion won. Worldwide, e-book sales were $3.9 billion (2009), just 5.2 percent of all book sales of $75.8 billion.

Sean Chung (press@whowired.com)