'K-Edu' Expands Beyond Southeast Asia to Asia... Woongjin ThinkBig Secures 10 Billion KRW Export Contract

AR Reading Solution 'ARpedia' Exported to Chinese Market
Signed 10 Billion KRW Contract with Taiwanese Company StudioA

Woongjin ThinkBig's augmented reality (AR) reading solution ARpedia. (Photo by Woongjin ThinkBig)

The 'K-Edu' craze sweeping Southeast Asia is showing signs of spreading across the entire Asian region. A domestic education company has succeeded in securing an export contract worth 10 billion KRW for the Greater China market (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau) with a single product.

Domestic edutech company Woongjin ThinkBig announced on the 1st that it has signed an exclusive supply contract with Taiwanese company StudioA to provide the augmented reality (AR) reading solution ARpedia to the Greater China market. The contract is based on a minimum guarantee sales model. Woongjin ThinkBig will supply StudioA with at least 80,000 sets of ARpedia annually. When converted into monetary value, this amounts to approximately 10 billion KRW.

StudioA is a subsidiary of the Foxlink Group headquartered in Taiwan. It distributes Apple devices and operates education businesses. StudioA plans to handle the entire online and offline distribution of ARpedia in key locations including Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Macau. It will also be responsible for supply volume and marketing utilizing local infrastructure.

Woongjin ThinkBig signed the export and distribution cooperation contract with StudioA for the Greater China market on May 23. At that time, the specific contract amount was not disclosed, but on the 31st, it was revealed through a corrected public announcement, and the contract period was changed to run from July 31 to July 30, 2024. The contract will be renewed annually thereafter. By granting StudioA exclusive rights to the Greater China business of ARpedia, Woongjin ThinkBig aims to enter the local market more professionally and actively through a stable partnership with a major distributor.

ARpedia is Woongjin ThinkBig’s flagship global edutech product, which won the 'CES Innovation Award' for two consecutive years?the first in the domestic education industry. It provides users with a three-dimensional reading experience by implementing characters and illustrations from books using AR technology. It was first launched domestically in August 2019 under the 'Interactive Book' brand and has sold 200,000 sets and over 6 million individual copies to date. It also achieved the 20-year cumulative sales record (6 million copies) of Woongjin ThinkBig’s former flagship book, the 'Woongjin Encyclopedia,' within just four years of its release.

It is rare in the industry for a single educational product from a domestic education company to secure an export contract worth 10 billion KRW. This marks the first step in expanding the popularity of Korean educational content, which had been centered in Southeast Asia, to the entire Asian region. It is said that StudioA approached Woongjin ThinkBig multiple times to express confidence in the success of the business to finalize this contract. Lee Jae-jin, CEO of Woongjin ThinkBig, said, "This contract is significant as it demonstrates that a single product from a domestic education company has been recognized for its technological capability and global market potential, resulting in a large-scale export achievement." He added, "In addition to the Greater China market, we are preparing contracts with several companies in Japan, the United States, South Africa, and Israel, and are also negotiating exports in Southeast Asia, so the overseas success of ARpedia is expected to expand further."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.