POSDATA, an IT service provider established by Korea’s largest steelmaker POSCO, has announced the commercial launch of its IPTV service after a trial since the end of last year in Los Angeles where there is a high Korean and Asian immigrant population density. At the initial stage of the IPTV service in Los Angeles, the service offerings will be aimed at penetrating Korean and Asian American market that comprises a large proportion of those who has a quiet understanding of Korean culture by providing video-on-demand(VOD) of Korean dramas, movies, entertainment shows, etc. To ensure relable supply of contents POSDATA has cooperated with Korean broadcasting such as MBC, SBS, and KBS and worked with local partners in the United States who have a strong marketing network in the Korean and Asian community. Also, POSDATA has established a joint venture with Celrun, a diversified IP set top box manufacturer, and Acanettv, a digital TV platform provider, in order to facilitate its IPTV operation.

After a successful launch the service offerings will be extended by adding TV shopping malls, online education programs, Karaoke, etc. In addition, POSDATA has planned to combine its IPTV service with Mobile WiMax in which POSDATA has its own core technology. It is believed by POSDATA that Mobile IPTV will bring an edge to its IPTV business in the U.S. market.

Before the smartphone market in South Korea started booming in 2007 there was skepticism about whether there is enough demand from Korean consumers for internet-capable smartphones, given that they can easily have internet access at PC Rooms located within a five-minute walk in any city.

After Samsung “Blackjack”’s great success in both of corporate and consumer smartphone markets and the abolition of the WIPI requirement, which will be active in April 2009, Korean mobile phone operators have been eager to expand their lineup of smartphones, especially including foreign handset makers such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone.

One of the most persuasive reasons why mobile phone operators are moving aggressively to boost the smartphone market is that they can increase their ARPU, average revenue per user, through increased mobile data sales. As voice ARPU continues to decline, mobile phone operators try to offset the loss in voice ARPU by increasing the volume of data traffic. For that reason, smartphone becomes recognized as a new growth engine in order for them to boost their ARPU in that it creates a new revenue segment, which is a corporate market and contributes to the growth in data sales.

This morning I found that JC Allen visited Seoul and settled down for interviews from The INQUIRER.

He interviewed Sean Lee & Kang-Min Ahn who are respectively , CEO & CFO of DirectMedia. He interviewed them to discuss their business of mobile content distribution and their accelerating transition to become the biggest mobile content producer in South Korea. To read the full interview, click here.

I think it will give a good overview of how Korean mobile contents company operates in the Industry.