Kakao – the famous operator for the mobile messenger KakaoTalk unveiled a new mobile content platform, KakaoPage. It is seeking to bolster their revenue with a new business model. We wrote about this previously, but we thought an update was necessary now that it is officially launched! The launch can be seen as the homegrown startup’s move to solidify revenue sources. It also has an incredibly large (and growing!) subscription base. The…

I read somewhere that it was gratifying for Koreans to watch Tim Cook (the Head of Apple Inc.) ‘beg’ for China’s forgiveness. Well, I guess that can be true to a certain extent, although I personally don’t agree with this. I also read somewhere that ‘apparently being the CEO of the best company in the world means to always say that you’re sorry.’ So, obviously, there’s a lot of emotions involved. It…

Two words: market saturation. According to Strategy Analytics, the Korean smartphone market growth for smartphones will slow down this year and possibly post a negative growth in 2016. The local market for smartphones is expected to grow 8% from a year earlier to around 33.1 million units this year. This marks a remarkable slowdown from an explosive 717% on-year growth in 2010 as well as a 75% growth last year. According to the…

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (hereby ICT) held its first international meeting in preparation for the plenipotentiary conference of the “International Telecommunication Union” to be held at Busan next year. The ITU plenipotentiary conference is expected to bring together about 3,000 people from different governments, international organizations, and businesses in 193 nations. 100 representatives from 38 member states from the Asia-Pacific region attended the meeting to get global ICT…

Samsung’s “Galaxy” series was again rated as Korea’s most valuable brand in the first quarter of 2013. Brandstock, a local research firm conducted a survey and Samsung received 938 points, retaining the top spot for the second consecutive year. The supermarket chain “Emart” followed with 924 points. Samsung outstripped Nokia as the world’s biggest smartphone maker and sold more than 40 million units worldwide. Samsung controlled 30.4% of global smartphone market, surpassing…

The title just says ‘Korean community website’ because I personally do not think it is a major website. The website in question is the infamous and controversial “Ilgan Best”. Apparently, an international hacking group, Anonymous, have attacked the website. The website is humor-centered with jokes and political viewpoints. These are heavily biased, although that goes for any online community really. To give you the low-down of the event: 1. Ilgan Best came…

CoolIris CEO, Soujanya Bhumkar, has taken several recent trips to Seoul and I had the pleasure of catching up with him to find out more about what he has been up to during his visits. I had expected a press interview, with Soujanya explaining more about CoolIris’ new products, but he was much more interested in discussing the rise of entrepreneurship in Korea. He was clearly excited about the potential for Korean…

전 세계적으로 호평을 받고 있는 소니의 최신 스마트폰 `엑스페리아Z’가 국내 자급제폰으로 조심스런 첫발을 내딛었지만, 반응은 예상보다 썰렁했다. 고가의 프리미엄 자급제폰이 국내에 제대로 자리를 잡기까지는 아직 갈 길이 멀다는 분석이다. 26일 G마켓에 따르면, 지난 19일부터 소니의 엑스페리아Z를 판매했지만 현재까지 불과 80대를 한정 판매한데 그쳤다. 일일평균 10대도 판매하지 못한 실적으로, 상당 물량이 재고로 잡힐 전망이다. 지난 1월 CES2013에서 공개된 엑스페리아Z는 5인치 풀HD 디스플레이에 7.9mm의 얇은 두께, 소니 특유의 세련된 디자인, 퀄컴의 스냅드래곤 S4프로 1.5GHz…

The concept of value builds on alternative returns. To put your money in your business, you should expect better returns from that investment than you could achieve through other investment vehicles. Thus the main target of any company should always be, not maximizing revenues or profits alone, but maximizing profits with as little capital invested as possible. In other words, maximizing the return on invested capital, ROIC, is key. CEOs of SMEs…

What is KakaoTalk?

So it’s needed in the states. Why is it needed in Korea? Since 2000, South Korea has grown from a developing pharmaceutical market to one boasting of universal healthcare coverage and easy access to medical facilities; but is South Korea provides strong financial support for its elderly population through impressive access to healthcare insurance and reimbursement. The Korean regulatory authority approves medical products through a transparent, strong and efficient regulatory system, and…

I remember, at one of my presentations last year on the ‘Fan-orientation Strategy’ – the business strategy framework I’ve developed, I asked the audience what the #1 company, non-oil, at the top of S&P 500 Global, but with only five different product categories was. And the audience was surprised when I named the company. Not before a year has passed, that company has made me rephrase that statement! Now the company is…

Cooliris today announced the release of the new Cooliris mobile app which offers endless discovery of friends’ and followers’ photos, and adds Dropbox to the portfolio of media sources users can seamlessly explore from the app. Cooliris has already integrated the mobile library, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Google+/Picasa, Twitter, SmugMug, Google Drive, Google Images, Yandex.Fotki in Russia, and Renren in China. Cooliris, which has reached the #1 iPad app in 75 countries for…

KakaoTalk launched the KakaoTalk PC version (beta test) from yesterday, 26 March 2013. You would be able to log in using your KakaoTalk ID, not your phone number. Verification would be made via phone and you would log in as usual and communicate PC to PC or PC to smartphone (they’re synchronized).

The rumor has it that the Galaxy Note 3 will come with an OLED (rumored to be ‘unbreakable’ and resistant to drop shocks) HD screens. This means that Samsung will set a new paradigm between smartphone manufacturers. What kind of shift in dynamics will there be?

Samsung has developed to become the world’s biggest handset maker since the introduction of its Galaxy S smartphone series equipped with Google’s Android mobile operating platform. In contrast with Apple’s iOS, Samsung strengthened its partnership with Google for the Android mobile operating system which boasted being open platform. However, it seems that things may change with the demand for an improved variety of mobile platforms from handset manufacturers as well as mobile carriers.

beSUCCESS covers weekly news in Korea, 25 Mar.

Samsung Display recently dropped an injunction seeking a ban on their archenemy, LG Display. The ban was surrounded around the OLED, or organic light-emitting diode technology. Whether this is a reconciliatory move or purely for strategic purposes is up for debate.

South Korea is now the second most innovative country in the world, according to Bloomberg. The data compiled by financial and data provider ranked Korea behind the US – who topped the list by climbing 6 ranks. Korea moved up 1, from 3rd place to 2nd. The research indicated progress in Korea’s innovation-related sector. However, Korea’s productivity ranked relatively low at 32nd, while it made the top 10 in the seven other measures. The nation’s patent activity ranked first among the 50 countries in the ranking. Finland, which topped the ranking last year, fell to fourth place, while Japan and China ranked sixth and 29th, respectively.