Agence France-Presse and its South Korean partner Thursday launched a website which seeks to become the leading news community site in one of the world's most wired nations. AFPBB News (www.afpbb.co.kr) offers Korean-language content from AFP and local providers covering everything from business and politics to entertainment, fashion and sport. Kim Jong-Moon, CEO of Contents Link which operates the site, described it as the country's first to specialise in international news. AFPBB News will also offer around 500 full-size photos a day. AFP's managing director Jean-Pierre Vignolle said he hopes AFPBB News will grow into Korea's leading "news community" site featuring all the news agency's major products -- text, pictures, graphics, animation and video. Vignolle said news agencies had traditionally operated as wholesale suppliers to newspapers and broadcasters, but technological leaps now allowed them to reach a variety of other users directly. With the new website targeting netizens directly, he said, "we are creating, de facto, a news community, all in the Korean language. The Korean site is AFP's second such regional venture after AFPBB News launched in Japan in 2006.
http://www.ejc.net/media_news/afp_and_skorean_partner_launch_news_community_website/
