Genie, KT’s music service for smartphones, has been launched in 45 countries across six continents, the mobile carrier said earlier this week.
The company said that the smartphone-only music service launched globally on Tuesday, giving anyone with an Android handset access to the latest K-pop songs.
The 45 countries include the U.S., Australia, Germany, France, Russia, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, New Zealand, Mexico, India, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil and Argentina.
However, the service was yet to be available in China and Japan.
The move comes as the country’s No. 2 mobile carrier looks to strengthen its global businesses as the local telecommunications industry is seeing slowing growth. The firm aims to post 3.9 trillion won ($3.7 billion) in annual sales from global projects by 2015.
“With the launch of Genie’s K-pop app, fans around the world with a thirst for ‘Korean Wave’ content can now easily enjoy and purchase various K-pop content, including music, music videos, photos and video clips,” according to KT officials.
The service, which can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store, also offers a “Full Track Preview” that enables users to preview tracks from beginning to end up to three times for free, its officials said.
“With Genie K-Pop, fans around the world can now enjoy various K-pop music and content. We will continue to target the global virtual goods market, riding the rising popularity of the Korean Wave globally,” said Terry Ahn, head of the smart eco division at KT.
By Cho Ji-hyun (
sharon@heraldcorp.com)
