Korea is still seeing some immense growth. According to the Korean Venture Capital Association, venture capital firms in Korea raised $191 million in the first quarter this year, up slightly from $189  million in 2012. Interestingly, there is a general slowdown in the U.S. startup scene – U.S. venture capital firms raised $4.1 billion from 35 funds during the first quarter of this year according to the National Venture Capital Association (this is about a 34%…

Good morning everybody! June is the last month for Q2 – hope you are all satisfied with the results you’re getting. Here are some beSUCCESS-approved readings for this morning: 1. The New “Handmade” (Part Three) This series from TechCrunch is all about 3D printers. Consumer interest in 3D printing is booming, thanks to affordable printers. But 3D printing is fueling artists’ creativity, too, and turning your consumers into artists. The series tells you about 3D-printing technology, the artists…

1. SoftBank Capital Raises $50M To Invest Exclusively In New York Startups Back in February, SoftBank Capital raised $250mil. focused on helping established tech startups break into Asia. As of this morning, they have just announced that they’ve raised $50 million that they plan to invest entirely into early-stage New York startups in hopes that it’ll boost the startup ecosystem there with a few big wins come out of the city already. (TechCrunch) 2. Waze mapping app gets a little more…

Meet KnowRe. “Your new digital teacher’s aide”… and the Winner of Gap App Challenge! KnowRe is humbly describes itself as an ‘educational technology company’ that develops innovative online adaptive service for mathematics, but I disagree – there is so much more to it than what meets the eye. They were listed by TechCrunch, GigaOm, TechwireAsia, The Next Web and VentureBeat (just to name a few!) as one of the hottest Korean startups…

According to the Korean Financial Supervisory Service, SundayToz, the developers of AniPang, will be joining the KOSDAQ (Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations trading board), following an acquisition by Hana Green Special Purpose Acquisition Co. SundayToz is the developer of Kakao’s AniPang (adequately named “the national mobile game of Korea”). They are known as the company that literally ‘opened a new chapter for Mobile Games’ – and they made 23.8bil. KRW (approx. 23.8 million…

Today’s Events: 1. Jump Together! Running Mentoring Session (Kor) A great mentoring program for young startups, university students and other interested people. Vie for synergy, comrades! 2. The 5th DrinkEntrepreneurs Event Once a month, DrinkEntrepreneurs offers a relaxed environment for driven and motivated entrepreneurs to meet and exchange over a drink and music. This event differs from many networking socials having no format, name tags, business booths, or stuffy environments. It’s free (drinks available at the…

Good morning everyone, here are some news articles we picked out for you this morning. 1. Coinbase Leads Charge In Bitcoin’s Consumerization Some interesting perspectives on Bitcoins. Bitcoin (BTC) is a cryptocurrency first described in 2008 by a pseudonymous developer ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ who called it a peer-to-peer, electronic cash system that can be transferred through a computer/smartphone without an intermediate financial institution. (TechCrunch) 2. If you’re disappointed with big data, you’re not…

*Remember folks, Wednesdays are your ‘Weekly News’ day! Cymera Tops 20mil. In Downloads So Cymera is kind of a big deal now – they just topped 20 mil. in downloads. We wrote about this earlier (maybe a week ago). On May 13, Cymera passed the 10 million mark in downloads outside of the Korean peninsula, proving popular in Thailand and Taiwan. SK Communications SNS affiliate said that the number of downloads recently…

Howdy world citizens! Here are some morning reads for you today, good-to-go either on a train, a bus, over a cereal bowl (or another bowl, if you know what I mean)… whatever you desire, I supply ya. It’s Wednesday! Keep it up! Whatever you do, don’t be this guy. Weekend’s almost here! 1. Thomas Clayton: Bidding war between Tencent and LINE for Kakao Great article by Product Manager and Senior Writer at e27,…

1. Comic XKCD Nails Google Glass Critics (Especially Congress) “‘Maybe before we rush to adopt Google Glass, we should stop to consider the consequences of blithely giving this technology such a central position in our lives.’ Don’t have any insights about a technology? Just use this sentence! It makes you sound wise and you can say it about virtually anything.” 2. Samsung Briefly Posts Galaxy S4 Mini On Its Apps Site, Adding…

At beLAUNCH2013, I had the privilege of interviewing David Lee, who I found to be extremely experienced, confident, and witty (these adjectives fail to describe how awesome he is).  David had previously been the Director of Google and the company’s first international executive to lead the sales, operations, and business development efforts in Asia, Europe and Latin America. He is also the Co-Founder of XG-Ventures, a renowned angel fund in Silicon Valley, the…

“This is a PDF document. You can page through it with your finger.Of course, you can also write comments and draw lines in the PDF document. Also, if you choose the marker, and move your finger over text, you can highlight text like this…” -Kenji Matsunaga, Marketing Manager at Sony Business Solutions A4 size papers are now a thing of passé. Sony has recently launched an A4 sized equivalent 13.3″ digital paper notepad,…

Industry officials recently said that SK Communications, the social network service (SNS) affiliate of SK Group, is planning a ‘refashioning’ of its ailing service Cyworld. We all know that due to a decline in their earning, SK was forced to downsize in 2012. It had an operating loss of 10.3bil KRW in Q1, marking its sixth consecutive quarterly loss. However, market watchers believe that they are aiming to draw back its subscribers….

The World’s Biggest Digital Cable TV Show Kicks Off According to the Korea Times, the biggest cable TV forum kicked off yesterday at Jeju, Korea. “Beyond Cable, Smart and More” is the main theme for this year’s “Digital Cable TV Show,” which kicked off at the Haevichi Resort on the nation’s southern resort island of Jeju. The conference is the 11th such held annually. The event, organized by the Korea Cable Television and…

“Two’s not enough to provide true competition. These guys are getting ready to kill the Internet, that’s where this [disordered, no-rules and] unregulated duopoly is headed.” -Mark Cooper “Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas Edison A duopoly is a market condition in which two companies producing a similar type of product have control over the market. It’s a situation in which two companies own all or nearly all…

We wrote earlier in the year that Samsung and Pantech will compete in the smartphone and tablet marketplaces in 2013. The decision comes as a surprise and may raise some eyebrows among analysts and investors who say that Pantech doesn’t have much to offer Samsung in terms of technology or software capabilities: it was confirmed today that Samsung invested in $47.6 million in Pantech, the third largest mobile device manufacturer in South…

The Korean Market: Huge.  Korea’s population: 50 million, with strong purchasing power. Korea’s GDP as of 2011: in the range of US$1.16 trillion. Korea’s GDP per capita: $22,778. Geographically, Korea is situated at the center of maritime & air transportation networks in Northeast Asia. Northeast Asia has now become one of the three global economic pillars, along with the US and Europe. Korea’s its high-end market is recognized as the ‘global trend-setter’ in the region. There…

“What do you mean ‘create’ a culture? Cultures should and do just happen.” “A company is a purely intellectual concept.” – Dee Hock, Founder of VISA International. As Tom Peters put it in his book “In Search Of Excellence”, a company can provide the same level of ‘social resonance’ as does an honorary society, or an exclusive club. A company has the same culture that goes hand-in-hand with that resonance. But how…

At beLAUNCH2013, I had the privilege of interviewing Christine Tsai, Partner and ‘pug herder’ at 500 Startups. (Confession time. I almost fell in love.) “Grace under pressure” really did define Christine as a person – throughout the interview, she was collected, passionate, and incredibly charismatic. But she was also sharp, clear and spoke with conviction. Christine is a true compétant of a woman and role model. Previously, Christine was in product marketing at…

International markets are too big an opportunity to pass up. Why allow physical borders to dictate the limits of your business? Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, once said that “if you have a product business and you aren’t focused on international, you are missing out on two-thirds of your potential customers.” This is still widely relevant to many startups around the world. Michael Fertik, the ‘serial entrepreneur’ said in his Harvard Business…