Hancom

Former logo

Hancom, Inc. (called Haansoft Corporation in English until early 2010; Hangul: 한글과컴퓨터; RR: Hangeulgwa Keompyuteo; MR: Hangŭl-gwa K'ŏmp'yut'ŏ; literal translation: Hangul and Computer)

Hancom (KOSDAQ: HAANSOFT) is an office suite developer in Korea. Established in 1990, the company created the native word processor for the Korean language called Hangul.

The story of Hancom mirrors the fortunes of Korea’s reborn software industry through support from the government. In 1998, the company nearly went bust although it had been considered a national treasure: bad management, the Asian financial crisis and software piracy had brought the company to its knees. Microsoft, which had about 15% market penetration in office apps at the time in Korea, offered USD 20 million to Hancom to stop producing Hangul and instead resell its localized Word program. For a small investment, Microsoft would have wiped out its main competitor completely in Korea, one of the few countries in the world that had still resisted wide adoption of its office suite.

When the news of the deal broke, Koreans united in national fervor and raised over USD 10 million through a national campaign to save the company. In addition, Hancom’s near-bankruptcy brought the issue of software piracy under the national spotlight. As a result, Koreans began to pay for their software.^[3]

Hancom currently employees 320 people, with 220 engineers dedicated to research and development.^{[citation needed]} The company has been profitable for nine consecutive years, with an estimated sales of KRW 54.5 billion (USD 48.6 million) for last year.^[3]

Hancom Office

Hancom’s Office Suite remains the company’s main product. The suite is available in English and Korean.

Hancom Office consists of Hanword (a.k.a. Hangul, hwp), Hancell (Spreadsheet), and Hanshow (Presentation program).

Hangul (also known as Hangul Word Processor or HWP) is a word processing application. It is used extensively in South Korea, especially by the government. Hangul's support for the special needs of the Korean written language has gained it widespread use in South Korea. Microsoft Word and Hangul are used alongside each other in many South Korean companies.^[3]

Hangul saves documents in HWP format, with the filename extension *.hwp. HWP files, up to the versions created with Hangul '97, can be opened with OpenOffice.org. However, files created with later editions of Hangul, including Hangul Wordian, Hangul 2002, Hangul 2005 and Hangul 2007 cannot be opened with OpenOffice.org, due to the major changes in the document structure. However, users can save files in MS office formas such as Doc, Docx, ppt, pptx, xls, and xlsx. One can also directly save a file into PDF with Hancom Office 2010 and up. In addition, Hancom Office 2010 SE also supports standard ODF files and can convert to the PDF file format.^[4]

ThinkFree

ThinkFree is its next-generation virtual office suite.^[3]

Thinkfree Office product family include Thinkfree Online which is the first MS-compatible web-based online office in the world,^[5] Thinkfree Mobile Office which runs in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and Thinkfree Server which is a web-based office solution that integrates with on-premise and cloud-based servers.

ThinkFree Mobile has been pre-installed in many mobile dievices such as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus,^[6] Fujitsu's tablets^[7] and HCL's, the one of the biggest Indian mobile device manufacturers.^[8]

Product List

• Hancom Office Suite
  • HanWord (also called as Hangul-a.k.a. HWP)
  • HanCell - spreadsheet program
  • HanShow - presentation program
  • Hancom Office Hanword Viewer
  • Hancom Office Hanword
• ThinkFree Office
  • ThinkFree Online
  • ThinkFree Mobile
  • ThinkFree Server
• Asianux
• Hangul Development Library Kit
• Hancom Read-on

Discontinued Products

• HanMaek - Hangul I/O program
• HanArum - office products
• HanGrim - vector drawing program
• Hangul Print - printing program
• HanTeX - Hangul TeX program
• NetHangul
• Documen

References

External links

• Official website (ENG)
• Official website (KOR)