[START UP] Do You Want To Know What Your Friends Read? 'Flybook'

    SEOUL, KOREA, November 17, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Last year, the average consumption of books per household recorded the lowest since records began 11 years ago. According to current household survey data by National Statistical Office, the households with more than two people spent only 18,690won that was 1.8% less than that in the previous year. Except for the textbooks, spending on general books was just 7,747won. These reading culture stagnation and rapidly falling rate of reading could bring inequality of knowledge.

What makes people hesitate is always the same. Although there are many books to read, people are not sure which book they should pick up. In Korea, about 70,000 volumes of books come out every year. Then, most people are busy enough to read new books or bestsellers written by famous writers.

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How can people read good books and share them? Korean Start-up brings out 'Flybook' which is a brand-new book social network service.

On 31st of last month, Flybook Android app was rolled out. What's the difference of the SNS-based book social network service? Existing ones only focus on reviews, appreciation and comments.

Jun-hyeon Kim, the CEO of Flybook said, "Flybook focuses on not a book, but a person. It shares information about books and the motivation for reading a book through 'people' like their friends, acquaintances and mentors.

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(Photo: TOP FLYER Book Service provides the book list of specialists such as an architect, a financier and a designer.

When you run on Flybook, you can see familiar buttons like follow and like on Tweeter and Facebook. You can recommend, share and present the book you are reading. Also, you can buy a book through online bookstore links. The new users of the app can choose TOP FLYER sorted by their jobs or interests, see the book lists and share reading experience. Without another joining process, people can log in with their Facebook ID or E-mail address.

Jun-hyun Kim, the CEO and Sang-mon Park, the marketer had worked for the same company. They have 6 years' experience of planning and marketing in IT industry. When it comes to the people in the IT industry, they tend to read only How-to books. That's the motive to develop Flybook. The service was made to encourage people to read good books from small publishers which are in the shade of bestsellers. The variety of reading experience is also important and should be concerned as much as a low reading rate.

The CEO said, 'Motivation is important for reading. There are few people who hate books. They just don't know which book is good for them and from where they start." Flybook is a way for people to share their thoughts and enjoyment of reading.

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(Photo: From left side, Seong-young Park(a developer), Sang-mon Park(a marketer), Lee-seol Lee(a designer) and Jun-hyun Kim(the CEO)

Flybook(www.flybook.kr) is now located at Nuritkum Square Mall in Sang-am dong, Seoul as it is selected for NIPA innovative venture companies by the Ministry of Science and Future Planning. And, they are also provided with offices, additional facilities and various marketing support from the government. From the development of the service, it aims at both a domestic market and a global one. With favorable reaction on world markets, Flybook will attract a lot of people in Europe and the U.S.

The IOS version will be open in November.

Flybook is book social network service which bookish people made for the people we hope to create a health society through reading books and flybook :)

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