Kono Business Services

Rethink Magazine Publishing

Production | Distribution | Monetization

service & solutions

Services & Solutions We Provide

Kono Reading Service (KRS)

Kono Reading Service is a digital reading service for magazines that we provide to patrons of a wide variety of businesses such as libraries, hotels, airlines, corporations, universities, coffeeshops, salons, retreat centers, hospitals, banks, and many other travel & hospitality industries. There are 200+ popular titles that cover news, finance, business & technology, fashion, life styles & travel. We guarantee the best reading experience across all platforms (iOS, Android, mobile web, as well as desktop web), with features such as personalized recommendation, search, bookmark, text to speech. We offer flexible integration models with your business such as WIFI, GPS, IP or membership verification.

Kono Publishing Service (KPS)

Kono Publishing Service is the technology solution for digital magazines. With KPS we provide technologies that convert print publication into digital products that in turn can be monetized in a variety of new ways.

Smarticle™

Smarticle™ is Kono’s proprietary solution to extract text, images, and layout information from magazine PDF files into structured data for individual articles. The processed data can then be output into varies formats such as JSON, HTML5, ePub, xml, and ANF (Apple News Format). We leverage advanced machine learning techniques that train sophisticated models to parse magazine PDF files. Smarticle™ can automatically generate magazine TOC (table of content) and individual article JSON files from PDF, thus drastically reduces digitization cost and improves efficiency. With Smarticle™, the processed article data not only ensures optimal display across various device screens, but also enables advanced features such as keyword search, recommendation, translation, text to speech.

Kono Publishing Platform

Kono Publishing Platform is the complete technology platform for digital magazines and related services. It includes modules that cover Smarticle™ Processing, Content Management, Membership/Subscriber Management, Payment, Access Rights Management, Personalization Services, etc. It is designed to be flexible and can be integrated according to various types of business needs and workflow.

Hosting Content On KRS

KRS provides the best magazine reading experience for readers on their digital devices, with features including personalized recommendation, search, bookmark, text to speech, etc. Whether it’s through our native app or the various custom partner channels, your content can reach even more readers worldwide.

Librarian

Wen Chin Chen

San Francisco Public Library

"It is great that Kono offers lots of Chinese titles that readers are very interested in, eg. business, news, travel and entertainment. Some readers also like look through those Japanese titles although they can not read Japanese. The best thing is that we can access through the library without paying it out of our pocket. Very easy to log in and can access any time."

Why Kono

Business solutions & insights rooted in data analytics & user research

Advanced technology in AI & machine learning for innovative solutions to improve industry efficiency & productivity

Comprehensive professional service provided by engineering, design & analytics teams for flexible business & partnership models

partners

Customers & Partnerships

Supervising Librarian

Mana Tominaga

Oakland Public Library

"Our patrons and staff love Kono for Libraries. It’s intuitive and easy to use, has tons of amazing content that appeals to more than just CJK speakers, and the vendor’s support for MARC records and reporting has been fantastic. Given the increasing costs for CJK periodicals, Kono is a great alternative to complement your language offerings!"

Assistant General Manager, Marketing Operation

Ms. Cindy Leung

SmarTone

"Kono provides excellent reading platform covering a wide variety of magazine titles from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. It is highly rated by our users that Kono can automatically do article recommendation based on individuals and offers modern reading tools and modes."

Kono is a technology startup founded by Stanford alumni in 2011. We focus on building solutions for digital reading, publishing, & membership services for the magazine industry. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have offices in Taipei and Tokyo.

At Kono, we believe reading is our passion but user experience is our religion. We pride ourselves in the culture of “always be learning”. Leveraging cutting edge technologies in AI and machine learning, we’ve built innovative solutions that solve practical problems faced by the publishing industry.