Kyowon (Korean for “No.1 or the best in Education”) was founded in 1985 and is one of the biggest publishing companies in Korea. The company provides educational content, picture books, animations, online service and digital content. Kyowon’s educational publications target prenatal care, babies and toddlers, pre-school children, elementary school students, and high school students.
Almost all of its titles are series- or program-based and focus on child development and educational needs. Kyowon's catalogue has 63 series, 90% of which are developed in house, with the remainder published in translation from around the world.
Kyowon has a sales force of 35,000 agents who work with 18,000 teachers to guide children through home study materials.
The company’s publishing operations are organized in three units: Kyowon Co., Ltd. publishes home-study programs and education services such as the enhance schoolwork guide Red Pen and the educational storybook collection Kyowon All Story. Kyowon Kumon focuses on home-study programs, and the 2007 launched Kyowon Hipercent is a customized online learning service provider.
In 2016, Kyowon split its digital division into the new subsidiary Kyowon Creative.
Kyowon added non-publishing business to its portfolio such as former Kyowon L&C (merged with Kyowon Co., Ltd. in 2014), which develops and offers various high-quality products and services related to the life and health of human beings and educational travel programs by Kyowon Travel Service (a subsidiary of Kyowon Group). Kyowon is enhancing its reputation by expanding its interests in Life & Culture business including life and health, leisure and hotel industries as well as developing its existing educational and cultural businesses.
Kyowon’s founder, Chang Pyung, started his business career as an insurance salesman and later sold books door-to-door.
Analysis & Key Developments
Financial
Kyowon’s publishing revenues have been declining over the past several years.
International
Kyowon licensed 2,249 titles in 70 countries to 114 companies, as well as 45 television broadcasting rights in 18 languages.
Digital
Kyowon launched Kyowon All&G,an educational program platform with for Android-based tablet PCs, in May 2014.
Kyowon launched various digital education programs such as Smart Red Pen and DOYOSE English Members, which can be used across digital devices such as tablet PCs, Smart Pen and physical workbooks.
In 2016, Kyowon split its digital contents division into a new subsidiary, Kyowon Creative. Kyowon now solely focuses on publishing. Despite this, Kyowon’s total revenue showed improvement from last year.
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