MP Media Launches Bilingual American and Korean Website

Posted on November 15, 1999

MP Media, Inc. announced the launch of a new website, HanBeat, which will provide a forum primarily targeting the 1.5 to 2nd generation Koreans in America as well as other Korean communities throughout the world.

Mary Park, founder of HanBeat, says in the announcement, "Computer and internet usage has permeated throughout a great number of Korean households. Asian youth spend quite a bit of time on the internet as evidenced by the mushrooming number of online Asian communities. "The only problem is that most of the existing Asian portals use the 'Pacific Islander category' approach by which they lump together numerous Asian nationalities as if they were one and the same. The Asian region isn't even like Latin and South America where most of the countries share a common language. While all Asians share some similarities, the existing all-Asian portals are going to run out of common ground at some point. In order to keep the continued loyalty of the viewership, a site has to be more vertical."

Update 4-3-19: The HanBeat site is no longer live.