Hangul Wordprocessor

For the Koreans, 15th century king Sejong is the most respected person in history. 

Why so? The reason for this affection lies in his personality — his concern about the people, recognition of their needs and sorrows — and his respect for science and education. 

Those two combined stood behind the King’s desire to ease the life of ordinary people, who had no chance to learn Chinese charters, which were used in Korea, due to severe restrictions, and provide them with a much simpler and much handy way of dealing with everyday needs. And so Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was made. 

Hangul is widely praised for its scientific properties, and the Koreans, both South and North, are very proud of having it, clebrating respectivly Hangul Day (October 9) and Chosongul Day (January 15th). 

Despite its simplicity, Hangul was not widely used in the country up until the beginning of the 20th century as it was considered to be the alphabet for the poor, which could not receive education and learn Chinese characters. 

However, during the decades of Japanese colonial rule the alphabet became the source of national pride and patriotism. 

In 1949, the first Hangul typewriter was developed. 

Due to specific features of the Korean alphabet structure it was rather difficult and time-consuming to type, so it was a huge relief when in the beginning of the 1980s government took initiative in computerizing society and the first word processor suitable for Hangul emerged. 

In 1989 four Seoul National University alumni developed a new word processor named Hangul. Its distinctive features included support for printer drivers, which in that times guaranteed it 80% of market share in the country. 

However, in the mid 1990s world giant Microsoft entered Korea. 

Unlike Hangul, the American company developed a whole specter of office programs, including PowerPoint and Excel, which were very accurately adjusted to the newly emerged Windows-95 operating system.

In 1997 Asian financial crisis hit Korea. Plenty of companies, including conglomerates like Dewoo, went bankrupt, and Hangul and Computers, the company behind the software, was not an exception. 

Microsoft, trying to push its position in the growing Korean market, made a deal with Hangul and Computers: it provided the bankrupt company with 20 billion won, and received back a promise that it would not develop text processing software anymore. 

The news went viral, and in the midst of the financial crisis, Korean people started ‘Protect Hangul’ campaign, and the collected money helped the firm to stay alive, grow and later develop its own set of office programs. 

Why? 

Because for the Koreans, their alphabet equals their national pride.