Hancom

Hancom (한글과컴퓨터)
Public (KRX: 030520)
Industry Computer software
Founded Oct. 9th, 1990 (Listed on KOSDAQ: Sep. 24, 1996)
Headquarters 10FL. Hancom Tower, 49, Daewangpangyo-ro 644 Beon-gil Sampyeong-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Key people
 Lee, Hong Goo, CEO[1]
Lee, Chan Jin, Founder[2]
Baek, Jong-Jin , Co-founder
Kim, Hyeong Jip, Co-founder
Woo, Won Sik, Co-founder
Products Hangul
ThinkFree Office
Asianux
Hangul Development Library Kit
Hancom Read-on
Website www.hancom.com (English & Korean)
Former logo
Lee Hong Goo, CEO of Hancom, in June 2014

Hancom, Inc. (called Haansoft Corporation in English until early 2010; Hangul: 한글과컴퓨터; RR: Hangeulgwa Keompyuteo; MR: Hangŭl-gwa K'ŏmp'yut'ŏ; literal translation: Hangul and Computer)

Hancom (KOSDAQ: HAANSOFT) is an office suite software developer in Korea. Established in 1990, the company created Hangul, a native word processing program for the Korean language.

The story of Hancom mirrors the fortunes of Korea’s reborn software industry through support from the government. In 1998, the company nearly went bust, although it had been considered a national treasure: bad management, the Asian financial crisis, and software piracy had brought the company to its knees. Microsoft, which had about 15% market penetration in office apps at the time in Korea, offered US$20 million to Hancom to stop producing Hangul and instead resell Microsoft's localized Word program. For a small investment, Microsoft would have wiped out Hangul's main competitor completely in Korea, one of the few countries in the world that had still resisted wide adoption of Microsoft's office suite.

When the news of the deal broke, Koreans united in a national fervor and raised over US$10 million through a national campaign to save the company. In addition, Hancom’s near-bankruptcy brought the issue of software piracy under the national spotlight. As a result, Koreans began to pay for their software.[3]

As of March 2015, Hancom employs 368 people.[4] The company has been profitable for nine consecutive years, with estimated sales of KRW 54.5 billion (US$48.6 million) for last year.[3]

Hancom Office

Hancom’s Office Suite remains the company’s main product. The suite is available in English and Korean.

Hancom Office consists of Hanword (a.k.a. Hangul, hwp), Hancell (Spreadsheet), and Hanshow (Presentation program).

Hanword, (also known as Hangul, Hangul Word Processor, or HWP) is a word processing application. It is used extensively in South Korea, especially by the government. Hangul's support for the special needs of the Korean written language has gained it widespread use in South Korea. Microsoft Word and Hangul are used alongside each other in many South Korean companies.[3]

Hangul saves documents in HWP format, with the filename extension *.hwp. HWP files, up to the versions created with Hangul '97, can be opened with OpenOffice.org. However, files created with later editions of Hangul, including Hangul Wordian, Hangul 2002, Hangul 2005, and Hangul 2007 cannot be opened with OpenOffice.org, due to major changes in the document structure. However, users can save files in MS office formats, such as doc, xocx, ppt, pptx, xls, and xlsx. One can also directly save a file into PDF with Hancom Office 2010 and up. In addition, Hancom Office 2010 SE supports standard ODF files and can convert to the PDF file format.[5]

ThinkFree

Main article: ThinkFree

ThinkFree is Hancom's next-generation virtual office suite.[3]

The Thinkfree Office product family includes Thinkfree Online, which is the first MS-compatible web-based online office in the world;[6] Thinkfree Mobile Office, which runs on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; and Thinkfree Server, which is a web-based office solution that integrates with on-premises and cloud-based servers.

ThinkFree Mobile has been pre-installed in many mobile devices, such as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus,[7] Fujitsu's tablets,[8] and HCL's devices (HCL is one of the biggest Indian mobile device manufacturers).[9]

Product List

Discontinued Products

References

  1. ↑ 김일숙,황승희,김현식,박종천,김정환 (2012-08-12). "SBS CNBC : 경제가 쉬워집니다" (in Korean). Sbscnbc.sbs.co.kr. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  2. ↑ "Chan-Jin Lee". Forbes. 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hancom Takes Vision of Information Independence to the Globe
  4. ↑ "한글과컴퓨터 직원수" (in Korean). 네이버 증권. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
  5. ↑ "Screen shots - Hancom Office 2010 SE Trial(English Edition) for Windows (License Key) 2010SE Shareware Software". Hancom-office-2010-se-windows.downloadpipe.com. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  6. ↑ "한컴 씽크프리모바일 뷰어 `갤럭시 넥서스` 탑재 [디지털시대 경제신문 디지털타임스]". Dt.co.kr. 2011-12-27. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  7. ↑ ZDNet Korea
  8. ↑ "Hancom And HCL Team Up To Bring ThinkFree Mobile Office To India | WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India". WATBlog.com. 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2013-05-13.

External links

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