By Kim Yoo-chul
SK Telecom said Thursday that it has formed a strategic partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing (HMH), the publisher of books authored by Mark Twain and J.R.R. Tolkien, to boost “smart learning business.”
In a statement, SK said the two companies will take advantage of each other’s core capabilities in information communications technology (ICT) and jointly develop an education platform targeted at the global market.
The alliance is calling for the U.S.-based HMH to develop and provide over one thousand pieces of content including a destination and leveled reader, while SK Telecom will collaborate by developing viewers, apps, billing systems, certification systems, synchronization functions and other platform functions.
``SK Telecom will focus on solidifying the domestic smart learning market by adopting HMH’s content in the T-Smart Learning platform by October as the first phase of the partnership,’’ the statement said, adding the two firms will develop projects with China and India.
HMH provides educational products and services to about 60 million students in 120 countries, according to its website. It also distributes electronic books owned by one of Amazon.com Inc.’s publishing arms.
The two companies started forging cooperative relations at a global education and technology conference, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), in June 2011, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in December 2011.