This article was published on November 28, 2011

This Korean firm is serving news topped with insight from the blogosphere


This Korean firm is serving news topped with insight from the blogosphere

Blogging is huge in South Korea, where most of the population go online everyday — through their phone, tablet device or personal computer — and local firm TNM is very much a major player in the space.

Strong community

The startup has built a 300 blogger strong platform of news and analysis based on partnering with some of the country’s most influential “power bloggers”, whose audiences are vast and dedicated. The company, which was founded in 2009 by Seung-eun Myung and Young Han, selects its contributors based on their levels of traffic and quality of content, with an emphasis on recruiting enthusiasts with expertise in their field.

TNM also helps foster a sense of community between bloggers with frequent events, workshops and parties that enable its partners to meet face to face.

Making money

The firm generates revenue in a number of ways, including the provision of content from its network to traditional media outlets which, for bloggers, can mean the negotiation of contracts that would be difficult to gain off their own back. Ads on the site are delivered through its own advertising network, which operates in a similar way to Federated Media in the US, while TNM provides social media and blog consultancy to clients through which it draws additional income.

Monetisation is not limited to the site itself however, and the company creates and sells mobile software and web platforms that are designed by its team of developers. In the past, its projects have included All That, a series of apps to promote operator SK Telecom’s flagship T-Store service, and its web development activities have produced more than 100 different apps, which have seen a total of 4,500,000 downloads.

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Diverse activities and interests

Its diverse range of activities and interests have led to TNM being mistaken for a marketing company, but it is, in fact, a registered media organisation as well as a content provider. Its latest project has seen it partner with Yonhap, Korea’s largest news agency, to develop a crowdsourced news site which runs articles and photos from bloggers, whilst managing copyright issues.

The site is called Kurry — a mix of three Korean words, which mean ‘material’, ‘market place of ideas’, and ‘mixture of content’ — and it is designed to be simple and easy to use, a combination that TNM believes will make it a go-to resource for Koreans seeking breaking news and expert analysis.

Going mobile and beyond

TNM’s latest move in the mobile space saw it release TNM Reader, an app for both the iPhone and Android, which gives mobile users an optimised platform on which to read content from across its network. Articles can be perused by category, app users can create their own reading list to keep up with their favourite blogs and all content is easily shared thanks to in-built support for a range of social media sites.

TNM also has international plans as the firm is aiming to translate and distribute content from its Nanoomi network outside of Korea. English-language audiences are a prime target for the international push, as The Korea Herald reports.

You can find more information about TNM and its activity through the links below.

➤ TNM | On Twitter

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