Google to set up Tap K-Pop Boom on YouTube Channel

SEOUL - Google Inc. (GOOG) may start a video streaming service on YouTube for South Korean pop music, tapping the genre’s worldwide popularity.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt agreed Monday to set up a YouTube channel exclusively for South Korean pop music, as he began a visit aimed at expanding his company's presence in the country, according to a statement from Lee’s office. No timetable for the service was included. Lee asked Schmidt to “actively” cooperate with South Korean technology companies.


A new service dedicated to K-Pop would build on the popularity of music and television dramas originating in the country, home to Google’s biggest Android operating system partner Samsung Electronics Co. and where the search engine operator is facing antitrust complaints. Schmidt agreed to bolster the overseas popularity of South Korean pop by establishing a YouTube channel and also pledged to support Internet start-up firms in South Korea, the office said in a statement.

Google’s Seoul office was raided by South Korea’s competition watchdog as part of a probe resulting from the April complaints, a person familiar with the investigation said in September. Lee called for active cooperation between Google and South Korean firms while Schmidt stressed the importance of "an open and global-oriented attitude" in developing the Internet market.

Robin Moroney, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Google, and Kwag Se Boong, a Seoul-based spokesman for the Fair Trade Commission, declined at the time to say whether the raid took place. Schmidt arrived earlier in the day for talks with local telecommunications and electronics firms, including KT and SK Telecom, as well as the head of the watchdog Korea Communications Commission.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics uses Google's Android operating system for its popular Galaxy smartphone series. Schmidt also met today with SK Telecom Co. Chief Executive Officer Ha Sung Min and discussed cooperation in wireless payments and social-networking services, the Seoul-based mobile- phone carrier said in a statement.

Google’s plans in South Korea also include services to make starting a business easier, according to the statement, which didn’t elaborate on the services. The US giant has a 15 percent share of the domestic mobile search market, the third largest after NHN's Naver and Daum, according to research data released in July.

But its share of South Korea's entire Internet search market only accounted for 2.4 percent.