Kyobo Book Centre - General Information

General Information

It was first established by its founding of the company, "Kyobo Moon-go Corporation", in December 1980. After six months, the first store opened in June, 1981. It was built right under the headquarters of its parent company, Kyobo. The sheer location, being Number 1, Jongro-1-ga, enabled the site to receive much enthusiasm from book fanatics, and its growth was exponential, together bringing much needed life into the recessive book industry. It underwent a major reconstruction in 1991, to enlarge its property underground to approx. 9000m². Its total length of leadways and passageways amounted up to 25km. The Gwanghwamun Store is famous for its entrances, particularly the main entrance that one takes from Jongro-3-ga. Whereby before climbing the stairs to the heavy gate-doors, one can read in clear old-style Korean, across the outer wall of the passage way: "People create/make books, and books create people/men". When entering the passage way, one notices the famous Nobel laureates of the world, including Korean recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, late former president Kim Dae-jung. An empty board exists for any future Korean Nobel laureate. After coming down the spiral staircase, one is immediately taken aback by the book store's sheer grandeur. Its ceilings are all mirrored and the book store seems endless. It houses around 2.3 million volumes. Together with the enormous book store, it also has the "Hot Tracks" store, where a huge collection of music CDs and DVDs are sold. Most non-Korean music is sold here; the membership subscription was so powerful that the "Hot Tracks" Gwanghwamun Store managed to shut down a huge CD warehouse store in Jong-ro sam ga. With this, there is also a huge stationery store, together with office ware and decorative products. The Gwanghwamun Store has the famous "Melodys" restaurant, that has a ceiling that resembles the night sky.

In May 2003, Kyobo opened its eighth official store, the third in Seoul, in Gangnam. It holds the record of being the biggest book store of the nation. Measuring in 11,900m², it is located underground, below the Kyobo Towers in Gangnam. It has the "Bookmaster Dedicated Hotseats" and the automated book distribution system that was implemented the first in the world by any book store. From July 2009, it has connected with Seoul metro line 9, Shinnonhyun station.

Kyobo Book Centre currently has around 3.2 million members (August 2004) for the Kyobo Book Club, and receives around 180,000 visitors everyday both its online and offline stores. Kyobo has maintained the reputation as the "nation's book store" by frequently and regularly hosting various book-related events, and it is famous for its monthly "meet-the-author" events. Kyobo Book Centre has also maintained its number one position in the category of "Mega-size Book Stores" in the KCSI, or Korean Consumer Satisfaction Index, for a record eight years.

Kyobo in Gwanghwamun reopened on August 27th 2010 after a five-month refurbishment.