1000 Books Added Monthly, 100,000 Books Owned, 4 Million Cumulative Members
Upward Growth Trend, Urgent Talent Recruitment Due to Growth
Genie Music Acquisition Aimed at Subscriber Expansion
It was bustling with ‘Book’. The office of Millie’s Library (Millie), located on the 11th floor of Se-A Tower near Hapjeong Station on Subway Line 2, was filled with various sounds. Beyond the transparent walls of the meeting room, heated discussions were taking place, and the office was abuzz with busy meetings with publishing industry professionals.
The application (app) serviced by Millie was equally lively. With about 1,000 new books added every month, the collection of 100,000 books awaited readers with diverse content. The number of members using e-books, audiobooks, and chatbooks (interactive content) reached 4 million (cumulative members). According to Kim Tae-hyung (42), head of the content team whom we met at Millie’s headquarters, “the majority are novice readers who had not been close to books before.” This is an achievement reached just four years after the service was launched in 2017.
When the company was founded, Kim was somewhat skeptical about the business. He thought the publishing market did not change rapidly and that it would not be easy for the service to stabilize. However, Kim said, “Just trying it seemed fun,” and “I actually feel great joy doing things that others have not experienced.”
Millie positions itself as a young company. The average age of employees is in their 30s. The organizational structure has team leaders directly under the CEO, and most team leaders are in their 30s to early 40s. With a young mindset and a simple communication system, work progresses quickly. Employees find their own tasks without being told. According to Kim, those who work only according to a fixed routine find it hard to adapt.
Since employees are motivated without being told, the work intensity was naturally high. Now, to look far ahead and sustain long-term growth, the company encourages rest at the organizational level. They implement a four-day workweek for two months in the first and second halves of the year as a seasonal system, and also have a shutdown system where all employees take a week off together.
It has been four years since the business started with the goal of helping readers easily get close to books. The growth graph is upward. Sales were 10.9 billion KRW in 2019, 19.2 billion KRW in 2020, and about 20 billion KRW is expected this year. The number of employees, which was 70 at the beginning of this year, has increased to about 100 in a few months, and recruitment efforts are ongoing.
Recently, Millie was acquired by Genie Music. Although there were many acquisition offers before, they thought Genie Music was the right fit. It could explosively increase subscribers, and since it is under KT with various channels, the synergy with online video services (OTT) and intellectual property (IP) content was high. A rate plan linked with Millie’s service will be launched soon. Millie’s audiobook content will also be serviced through Genie Music.
After being acquired by Genie Music, Millie faced some unwanted misunderstandings. Some in the publishing industry worried that Millie, now part of a large corporation, would lose its original identity and unique characteristics. However, Kim said, “Millie’s identity as a startup that must overcome adversity and constantly challenge itself has not changed. The work and the people remain the same.”
As sales increase, users’ app usage time is also growing. The average usage is 16 days per month, meaning users access it every other day. The average usage time per visit is 45 minutes. Kim explained, “Compared to Facebook (19 minutes) and YouTube (59 minutes), this is not a small figure.” He added, “Most users are people who had not read books before.” He also said, “Recently, many Millie users applied for job interviews, and many of them were passionate users who had been using Millie for years, not just signing up for employment purposes.”
Kim said, “Millie does not simply consider competitors in the same industry,” and “All content that consumes time, everything that surpasses reading in the same time frame, is a competitor.”
Now, there is no place in the publishing industry that does not know Millie. The number of publishing companies they work with has exceeded 1,300. While Millie used to make proposals first, now they receive proposals more often. They are not yet profitable. Kim said, “Sales continue to increase. However, aggressive marketing activities are also ongoing,” and “It is still a time to grow in size.”
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