Soompi
| 200px | |
| Owner | Rakuten Inc. (Viki) |
|---|---|
| Website | www.soompi.com |
| Alexa rank |  4,688 (August 2015[update])[1] |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available in | English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Thai |
| Launched | 1998 |
| Current status | Active |
Soompi is an English-language website providing coverage of Korean pop culture.[2] It has one of the largest international Internet community for K-pop,[3] mostly concentrated in its forums. More than 7,500,000 people are visiting Soompi every month, which offers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Thai services to cater to people from non-English speaking countries.[4]
Since its establishment in the late 1990s, Soompi has grown into an authoritative source for Korean popular culture, and is one of the most frequently visited websites providing coverage of K-pop music.[5][6][7][8]
At first, its visitors were mostly Koreans residing in foreign nations, with over 1.2 million people visiting the site. Currently, however, the majority of its members are non-Koreans in the United States, Canada, Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia, among others. Some 6 million people log on to the site every month and about 40% of its traffic originates from North America.[9][10]
History
Soompi was founded in 1998 by Korean American web developer Susan Kang;[11][12] the site quickly gained traction with fans throughout the world.[10] In February 2011, Soompi was acquired by Enswers, Inc.,[13][14][15] a Seoul-based IT venture company specializing in video search technology,[16] and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of it.
Soompi launched Soompi France in 2011 and Soompi Spanish in 2012, and it works closely with major Korean entertainment agencies such as JYP Entertainment,[17] S.M. Entertainment,[18] and YG Entertainment.[19][20]
Viki acquired Soompi on August 19, 2015.[21]
References
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- ↑ http://www.koreaittimes.com/story/23628/kt-new-strategies-media-contents-industry
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