Naver expands audiobook services amid challenges

By Nam Hyun-woo

Promotion image of Naver's audiobook service, Audio Clip / Courtesy of Naver

Naver is expanding its audiobook services, in order to retain its No. 1 status in the domestic audiobook market amid escalating competition between players, the internet portal said Tuesday.

According to Naver, its audiobook service, Audio Clip, held the first event of its author-reader meeting series on Dec. 7, featuring award-winning novelist Kim Yeon-su, who authored “I am a Ghost Writer,” “Goodbye, Yi Sang” and “Five Pleasures for Those Who Take Walks.”

More than 200 people attended the event at Naver's headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and the online streaming of the event drew more than 10,000 concurrent viewers.

“The series is aimed at rebooting the joy of reading for those who find themselves drawn away from books in favor of video content,” an Audio Clip official said, adding the program will continue to feature renowned and popular authors.

Along with the event, Audio Clip recently began a “90-minute Compact Audiobook” service, in which authors summarize their books into 90 minutes of narration. As the first piece, Audio Clip introduced the 90-minute version of “The things you can see only when you slow down” by Buddhist monk Haemin.

To draw more listeners, Audio Clip has been offering free audiobooks every Wednesday since June 26. As of Nov.6, 106,525 listeners enjoyed popular contents such as “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.”

“By the end of this year, Audio Clip will offer new free audiobooks including 'The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher' by Ahn Do-hyun, 'The Secret Life of Writers' by Guillaume Musso and a slew of other bestsellers,” the official said.

The Naver unit's recent expansion of its services came after the global audiobook streamer Storytel began its service in Korea last month. Since last year, Storytel has been signing partnerships with a number of big name Korean publishers and collecting more than 50,000 audiobooks.

Naver said Audio Clip has the largest Korean language audiobook database and the company will make additional investments and expand services to consolidate its No. 1 status in the domestic market. The company added that it plans to enter overseas markets in the near future.