Koreans in their 40s made 42 percent of purchases of e-book readers, according to a recent survey on ‘Biscuit Tab’ buyers by Interpark (image credit: epw @ flickr)
SEOUL, South Korea, Sept 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Koreans in their 40s made 42 percent of purchases of e-book readers, according to a recent survey on ‘Biscuit Tab’ buyers by Interpark, Korea’s online shopping mall. The Biscuit Tab is Interpark’s equivalent of Amazon’s Kindle, running on Android. And for what purpose did these 40s purchase e-book readers? It seems that pedagogical reasons drove them, not for learning from books themselves but for educating their children. Interpark’s e-book team leader said that schooling material packages for elementary students accounted for most of the purchase.
Interpark held a promotion event offering five e-Book packages with the launching of the Biscuit Tab. Among those five, the ‘Collected Works of World Literature’ package scored half the total package sales. The Collections of world literature have been always popular among Korean parents as an educational gift item. A lot of Korean parents have purchased paper-based world literature books for decades. This trend is now getting a digital touch. The sales of e-book packages that can be perceived as ‘educational’ make up 88 percent of the total package sales on Interpark.
The next big purchasers of the Biscuit Tab were the populations in their 30s, accounting for 33 percent of the total buyers. It seems that they chose the Biscuit Tab as a second-computer. Meanwhile, Interpark’s e-book platform ‘Biscuit’ gained more usage among e-book users. For three weeks from the launching day of the Biscuit Tab, e-book purchases on the Interpark through the Biscuit have been increased to 70 percent year on year.
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