Dropbox enters local market by offering service in Korean

Dropbox, a U.S.-based cloud storage firm, said Wednesday that its service is now available in Korean, in line with the company’s global partnership with Samsung Electronics.

Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, head of mobile business development at the firm, said the service is also embedded in Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone Galaxy S3, which was launched in 28 different nations on Tuesday.

It is also expected to be embedded in the handset, which will be rolled out by 296 telecom firms in 145 nations by the end of July, according to Fjeldsoe-Nielsen.

Dropbox is a service that lets people bring their documents, photos and videos everywhere they go and share them easily with others. It has more than 50 million users in 175 different countries.

“We’re launching 50 gigabytes of free space for two years for Samsung users that have these handsets,” he said in a press conference in southern Seoul. “This equals $200 in value.”

He stated that Korean was the only language it was currently launching. The service is currently available in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

“Launching it in Korean is a really big step for us and the reason we’re doing it is because Korea is an important market to us,” said Fjeldsoe-Nielsen.

He said that the embedded service on Galaxy S3 smartphones, however, would be available for Korean users only “if the mobile operators support it.”

“The only country which the carriers could possibly block it right now is Korea,” he said. “If blocked, Korea will be the only country that doesn’t offer Dropbox.”

But he added that the firm is currently in negotiations with the country’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom.

Dropbox in Korean will first be available on the Web and then move on to selected gadgets such as handsets running on Google’s Android mobile operating system with Mac, personal computers and iOs to follow, he said.

“Many carriers offer services like Dropbox already but when you look back in time, carriers have tried to launch their own instant messaging services, music services, social network services all under their own brands,” said Fjeldsoe-Nielsen. “But they’ve now been replaced with what the people chose.”

He showed confidence that people will pick Dropbox due to the love of the brand as well as the user experience.

“In Korea, we don’t have any partnerships but will allow people to get Dropbox in Korean through the Samsung handsets,” said Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, adding that the company was willing to expand its partnership in Korea.

“It’s not an exclusive partnership. There is commitment on both sides and there is a contractual commitment.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)