Google Acquires South Korean Blog Platform Provider

Google's Korean unit acquired South Korean blogging platform provider Tatter and Co. (TNC) on Friday, according to one of the company's co-CEOs.

Details of the acquisition were not disclosed on the posting on Kim Chang-Won's blog. TNC provides Textcube, which is a blogging and publishing platform along the same lines as Wordpress.

Google has been building up its presence in South Korea in the last couple of years as it tries to better take on the dominant portal services such as Daum. In South Korea as in other East Asian markets portal sites are popular with users and as a result Google has had a harder time in the region than in the U.S. or Europe.

In discussing the deal on his blog Kim also wrote that, as a part of Google, TNC will work on increasing Google's market share.

"Of course, Google isn't entitled with God-given right to become number 1 in every region it operates in, just because it's Google," he wrote. "It's actually more about the Korean web industry than about Google. I think the Korean web industry needs a player that can, as a balancing force, provide more options to the users and help create a more open web."

He said the company is "hopelessly behind in terms of globalizing our product" but that under Google's wing it will attempt to introduce Textcube outside of Korea.