These days, taking out of the box ambitious risks often bears unexpected fruit. Kim Seong-soo, president of the TOEFL study material publishing firm Lingua Forum, also reaped results by boldly saying 'no' when everyone said 'yes.' Founded in May 2000, Lingua Forum received attention last year for exporting its textbooks to a hundred countries worldwide, including the US.

The company's books geared toward non-native TOEFL test takers are gaining fame across the globe. It topped sales for TOEFL textbooks on the online US bookstore Amazon.com in December 2003. From the beginning, Kim had his eyes set on overseas markets. As soon as he finished developing the textbooks, he busily attended book fairs abroad. His books are now sold in some 100 countries including the US, Canada, India, Mongolia and the Middle East.


Unconventional ambition, Eyeing niches

When Kim first set about developing TOEFL textbooks, people called him crazy. Despite the opposition, he opened the company in May 2000 even with export plans. By that time, he had been running the famous Dongsoong foreign language institute in Seoul for 12 years. TOEFL study materials were all developed by American publishers while Korean counterparts translated them for sale to Korean customers. But running the institute, Kim realized there were few textbooks that fit the needs of people learning English as a second language. Also at the time, the TOEFL switched from paper- based offline tests to online tests using the computer from 2000. The difficulty of the exam questions and many other factors were also set to change. Discovering a niche, Kim closed his institute business. As a former Daewoo group employee experienced in shipments, he was confident in his ability to export Korean-made TOEFL textbooks.

Thanks to the success of its trademark study book 『INSIDER』, Lingua Forum leads the domestic TOEFL textbook market, estimated at some 15 billion won. Its first year sales total of 300 million jumped to 7.3 billion last year with a nearly 50% market share. Half of the sales were by foreign students learning English in the US. These student study books developed by Lingua Forum have a different format from American -made study materials. US books usually go straight into problem solving while the 『INSIDER』includes grammar explanation, test taking strategies, question patterns and frequency etc. The number of stars (from 1~5) next to each question, indicating how often it appeared in the exam, is a one-of-a-kind feature in any TOEFL textbook. Kim also put attention on the design. He went through various language textbooks of the world and chose a design favored by Asians.


Aiming for world class English textbooks

Apart from TOEFL books, Lingua Forum also publishes English and math study books primarily for elementary and middle school students such as ‘Get It Right. ’ Complimentary video lectures are also provided for some 140 courses at present. An average of 1,500 visitors log on to the website to listen to the online classes. Lingua Forum also partially invested in the production of the domestic sci-fi blockbuster 'D-War' by director Sim Hyeong-rae. So it uses D-War characters in various products it sells such as comic books, stickers, sketch books, puzzles, planners and so on.

The company is set to sign contracts with 20 large scale language institutes this month with plans to increase partner organizations by 40 each year from 2008. Six direct branches with a 50- 50 percent stake will open at the same time as early as this year. The overseas advance of Korean publishers is insignificant but Lingua is aggressively marking foreign markets as it published two books in the US and TOEFL textbooks in the global market. In a strengthened move from this month, a local chapter in Atlanta will begin sales promotions for direct marketing to bookstores, universities and language institutes in New York and Los Angeles. The launch pad will be TOEFL but SAT and SAAT textbooks will also hit the US market on a trial basis next year. Kim hopes to develop the world's best English education firm.