Glam Media, one of the largest publishing and advertising networks on the Web, is continuing to expand its international presence with the launch of Glam Media South Korea. The women-focused vertical will represent the sixth international country subsidiary for Glam, adding to platforms in Canada, Germany, Japan, France and the UK.
Similar to Glam’s womens entertainment, style and fashion channel Glam.com, Glam.kr will feature original stories, photos and videos, as well as curated content across a range of lifestyle categories including beauty, entertainment, fashion, health and wellness, and more. Ellie Park, formerly the editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine’s online site in South Korea, will serve as editor in chief of Glam.kr.
Glam Media South Korea is launching with 15 leading content providers such as Marie Claire, Luxury, WomanSense, iBestBaby, and more. Heesun Chin will serve as country manager for South Korea, and will lead advertising and sales operations for the platform. Glam is also incorporating its brand-targeted ad serving platform, Glam Adapt in South Korea.
Glam’s CEO Samir Arora tells us that the combination of the high number of internet users in South Korea as well as the opportunity for women’s focused content was the deciding factor in opeining up a designated South Korea site. According to comScore, South Koreans ranked number one for most page views per person and number four for number of hours spent online per person.
As we’ve heard, Glam is gearing up for an IPO in the next year. Successful properties outside the U.S. should help solidify Glam’s presence as a global content provider. The company just bought Canadian advertising media firm BBS Media this past week and will launch a Canadian site.
Arora says that Glam is seriously considering China, Russia, India, Brazil, Italy and Spain as the next possible points of entries outside of the U.S. Currently, Glam’s networks currently have a total reach of 90 million people a month in the U.S and just under 200 million monthly visitors globally. And further expansion should help the media company increase this traffic significantly.