SK Telecom said on Wednesday the company held a ceremony to mark the start of its new mobile service for learning English in Indonesia.

Titled “English Bean,” the mobile service enables users to learn English regardless of time and location, the country’s leading telecommunication company said. The smart-learning program runs on several platforms, including its website, Facebook page, mobile phones and landlines.

The telecommunications company has included a multitude of Facebook content such as English-learning games to attract users from Indonesia, which has 35 million Facebook users, the second most in the world.

The development process took 17 months, SKT said.

“(We) put a lot of effort in localizing the service to maximize the learning effect of Indonesian users.”

The launching of English Bean is part of the extension of SKT’s Indonesia operations, followed by “Melon Indonesia,” the company’s online service for music content which started in December 2010. Melon Indonesia has an average of 150,000 daily visits and has reached 2 million hits accumulatively, the company said.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)