There has been much talk about Facebook’s inability to crack the tough, localized Korean market, but in an interview with Facebook’s top brass in Korea, this situation seems to be improving. Korea is a key test market for Facebook and this should send a message to other global tech companies hoping to do business in Korea, particularly those engaged with expansion on mobile. It was also proven last year that Facebook was taking…
The researchers at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) announced that they developed a head-mounted display–30 times faster processing speed compared to that of Google Glass. ‘K-Glass’, developed by Yoo Hoi-Jun, Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAIST, and his team, is a high-performance, extremely low-powered head-mounted display (HMD) embedding an augmented reality (AR) chip–30x faster and with 3 to 12x longer operating time than Google Glass. Despite the sensation that Google created…
Kakao Corp., developers of Korea’s favorite messaging service and social platform, Kakao Talk, will be listing its stock publicly next May. This follows the recent news that SundayToz also successfully listed its stock in August 2013, and demonstrates further growth in the domestic tech industry, that has been attracting much attention in the international press attention recently. What’s more interesting though is the potential opportunity that Facebook has presented following today’s news that…
The application period for JFDI’s next session is open, but only for a few short days, before decisions are made about which founders will join the program this time around. Apply here now. In the past year JFDI has worked with 19 teams from all over Asia and as program Director, Ray Wu, looked back on his experience leading entrepreneurs he realized the importance of what JFDI is doing to build the startup community in…
Business Network Korea (BNK) is a flourishing business community in Seoul. Both Korean and foreign professionals who join their events operate under the simple philosophy of connecting for mutual business interest, with a particular focus on entrepreneurs and SMEs. Attendees have been finding high value through the events, which help young companies in Korea / Asia build a greater presence through collaboration. About BNK events: BNK events feature a “Speed Networking” session,…
Google, which has been relatively slow in expanding its market presence in South Korea, is now fast catching up to local rivals in display Ad sales (one segment of online advertising), according to industry sources. This news will be a surprise to many who have been watching Google’s advance in Korea with skepticism, as reported by beSUCCESS only a month ago. This news will also fall sweetly on the ears of…
The local market for mobile advertisement nearly doubled year-on-year in 2013, a government report showed Tuesday, amid the soaring number of smartphone users in the country. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the size of South Korea’s mobile advertising market was estimated at 416 billion won (US$392 million) last year, a leap from the 215.9 billion won (US$202.5 million) in 2012. Last year’s figure accounted for 4 percent of…
Reuters: Asian chat services KakaoTalk, LINE and WeChat threaten to overturn the mobile order of things, usurping the role of Google Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and telecoms carriers as gatekeeper to the consumer. Where these internet and telecoms giants once controlled the lucrative choke points of the industry, social messaging services are fast emerging as an alternative distribution channel for adverts, apps, and goods and services. For example, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat allows its more than…
With the launch of a large-screen smartphone-tablet hybrid on Thursday, LG Electronics is attempting to achieve an ambitious goal: regain the No. 3 spot in the global smartphone market place. It may be a long shot. Last month, Chinese PC maker Lenovo announced plans to buy Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit for $2.9 billion. There has been a lot of coverage in the press about the recent Lenovo-Motorola deal, but internally LG has been focusing on boosting their own…
IBM Korea and HP Korea are curtailing their operations in Korea, demonstrating two further examples of overseas tech leaders that have struggled in Korea, a country proud of its domestic high-tech heritage. The cuts are the result of poor performance in both their HW and IT business in the Korean market. Other overseas tech giants that have failed to engage with the Korean market include Yahoo, who withdrew entirely at the end…
Naldo today announced a new online instant-delivery ordering service that aims to disrupt a domestic industry worth $5Bn. The company provides “immediate delivery of almost any item for B2B and B2C customers within a maximum timeframe of 90 minutes via a browser-based online ordering-system”. The existing offline instant-delivery market in Korea is already huge and sprawling, but Naldo aims to provide a much more streamlined and cost-efficient experience to customers. The early…
미미박스, 1조 기업으로의 성장 꿈꾼다 – 美 창업사관학교 ‘와이컴비네이터’ 등 80만달러 투자 확정, 글로벌 본격 공략 기반 마련 – 지난해 7월 미래창조과학부 ‘나는 글로벌 벤처다’ 대상 수상 이후 미국 진출 추진 – 매주 10% 이상 성장, 가장 가능성 있는 스타트업 인정받아 아마존·구글 사업지원도 지난해 beLAUNCH2013 스타트업 부스에 참여하여 선풍적 인기를 보여 준 뷰티 큐레이션 커머스 No.1 미미박스(대표 하형석, www.memebox.com)가 국내 기업 최초로 세계적 스타트업 엑셀러레이터인 와이컴비네이터(Y-Combinator, 이하 와이컴비네이터) 투자유치에 성공하며 글로벌 시장 진출을…
Published on the Wall Street Journal, February 11 2013 First Year Raises Efficacy Concerns; Government Says Project Continues to Improve In the past year, the South Korean government has sponsored a raft of overseas programs to give its young startups exposure to global tech trends. Government officials here hope that a thriving local startup scene could soon put fresh Korean technology names on the global stage—and they are sparing no expense to…
Reported by AllThingsD on Septemer 1st 2013 Japan’s Internet e-commerce giant Rakuten is set to purchase Viki, a premium video site that has been described as “Hulu for the rest of the world.” The deal was set to be announced next week, but after I queried the company about it, its CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani (whose nickname is Mickey), confirmed the transaction, although he declined to give the price. That would be $200 million, according…
On December 20th we announced that Korea’s top social networking service for couples had launched V2.0 of their service. This followed with news from Japan on February 4th that the App had hit the number one spot in the social category. And Now a third momentous announcement within two months: Between has now added Japan’s DeNa as a strategic investor to build on recent success and the current trend towards ‘platforms’ that…
세계 최초, 최대 커플앱 ‘ 비트윈’, 일본의 DeNA로부터 전략적 투자 유치 성공 – ‘비트윈 ’ 의 글로벌 플랫폼으로의 성장에 기폭제 역할 할 듯 세계 최초, 최대 커플앱 ‘ 비트윈’ 의 개발사 VCNC(대표 박재욱)는 2014년 2월 10일 일본의 거대 IT 기업인 DeNA (디엔에이, 도쿄증권거래소:2432)로부터 전략적 투자 유치에 성공했다고 발표했다. 이번 투자는 비트윈을 글로벌 플랫폼으로 더욱 확장하고, 성공적인 수익화 모델을 개발하기 위한 전략적 제휴의 관계이며, 투자 금액은 계약상 비밀사항이라고 밝혔다. DeNA의 모리야스 이사오 대표는…
스타트업이란 무엇인가? ‘스타트업’이라는 단어는 한국에서 본격적으로 쓰여진지 3년이 채 되지 않았고, 미국에서도 2007년도 이후에야 쓰이기 시작했다. 이 신조어는 네이버 사전에서는 찾아볼 수 없고, 그나마 오픈사전에서 3줄의 짧은 설명을 찾을 수 있다. 위키피디아는 조금 더 많은 설명을 담고 있다. 오늘날 한국에서는 스타트업을 보통 ‘창업’으로 번역해서 사용하거나, 기존의 ‘벤처기업’이라는 단어와 혼용하거나, ‘IT업계 초기기업’으로 가두어 지칭하곤 한다. 유사한 듯 보이는 이 세 단어는 스타트업의 뜻과 의미를 잘 표현하지 못하며 많은 오해를 불러낸다. 언어가 사회적 약속이라는 전제하에, ‘창업’은 사람들의 머릿속에…
All navigation manufacturers are facing an increasingly challenging market. While Apple and Google offer built-in or free software in the US, Korean Telecom companies offer even more state-of-the-art navigation software, informing drivers of speed limit zones and locations of traffic enforcement cameras. Despite the similar kind of market pressure in the face of evolving smartphone apps, the navigation manufacturers in the two markets seem to be moving in opposite directions. While American…
According to a recent article on Forbes, and indeed my own insight from having worked very closely with Korean startups over the years, “A new start-up powerhouse is on the horizon – South Korea”. While the US, Israel, and Europe have long led global innovation in the tech industry there is excitement in the startup ecosystem in Korea, with a number of highly notable stories emerging. What is also encouraging is that where…
Partnership creates first Korea-focused accelerator for tech startups with a dedicated Silicon Valley Fast Track™ program Silicon Valley-based BootstrapLabs, a global accelerator for foreign entrepreneurs and Seoul-based Coolidge Corner Investment (CCVC), a technology venture firm with $22M under management, today announce the formation of BootstrapAccelerator Korea, a Seoul-based 6 month accelerator program specifically designed to assist young and promising korean technology startups to relocate in Silicon Valley and build global businesses. Additionally,…
