We mentioned in an earlier article regarding the acquisitions Daum and Kakao are making. Recently, the two Korean giants have acquired Dialoid and Sunnysoft respectively. Read more here.
beSUCCESS covers weekly news in Korea, 18 Feb.
Daum communications and Kakao will be making a series of startups acquisitions. This is to increase their competitive edge in terms of mobile services. The two Korean giants have acquired Dialoid and Sunnyloft respectively. What are the implications for startups and the startup ecosystem?
KakaoTalk, Korea’s leading social messaging service has launched a new mobile social album service that enables users to share their photos with their friends. This is the latest in Kakao’s strenuous diversification efforts, as it tries to keep up with Line, its major domestic competitor.
Greenmonster, Inc. (Seoul) aims to reinvent mobile journal writing experience with its milestone product Flava™. Flava began with an iOS diary app development project back in early 2011 with the goal of unleashing iphone’s multimedia journalistic capacity within a single app interface.
Described by the makers as “Twitter for photos” Happenin distinguishes itself from the many other photo sharing apps by allowing users to post only photos that have been taken in that very moment. This characteristic promises many changes in favor of users, according the developers.
Having achieved close to $15M in annual sales, AdLatte intends to expand into 20 new markets across North America, Europe, and Asia in 2013.
Video SNS service, RECOOD from Seoul based AHIKU Corporation is already available on iOS and from Q2 2013 will be available on Android. The company recently spoke to us, highlighting the startling similarities with Twitter’s recently launched Vine service.
‘Moneyball’ 투자 방식은 동명의 영화에서 등장하는 선수 분석 방식과 유사하게 수치 데이터를 분석하여 투자 대상을 골라내는 Venture Capital의 새로운 투자 방식입니다. 기존 VC 투자가 사람과 시장, 두가지를 보는 벤처캐피탈리스트 개인의 역량에 크게 의존하던 것과 달리 Moneyball 방식은 예를 들어 ‘한 명의 창업자보다 2-3명 내외 공동창업 성과가 더 좋음’, ‘Serial Entrepreneur의 성과가 꼭 좋지만은 않음’ 등의 법칙을 계량적인 Track Record 분석을 통해 찾아내 활용한다고 합니다.
KakaoPage, a platform that allows its users to market and sell their creative contents (audio, video, text) was launched last week. What exactly is it? Is the goal of making one million “profit-earning” partners within three years along with the launch feasible?
Wizard Work’s ‘Som Note’ was released recently on ‘Chatting Plus’ that was launched by Kakao Japan last month. It currently stands at 6th place on Google Play rankings- ahead of Naver’s Naver Memo (ranked 10th) and Evernote (ranked 21st). beSUCCESS investigates for their success.
beSUCCESS covers weekly news in Korea, 10 Feb.
JFDI is Singapore’s most established accelerator. They have just announced the eight teams who will join their program for its first 2013 outing, starting in February.
1. KT Telecom Announces 100Bn won Fund for Content startups : 2. President elect Promises to boost vital M&A activity : 3. Korean customers increasingly happy to pay for mobile apps : 4. More LTE Means Larger Platform for App Developers : 5. South Korea’s IPO Market Set To Double In Size This Year
In China and Korea mobile advertising has been viewed by 50% of consumers, while in Japan the figure is only 19%. If you are running a mobile marketing campaign, avoid Japan.
Since January 29, Line users have been doubling in Hong Kong. Just 2 weeks before that, Line also passed its 100 million user mark on January 18th. What are some of the lookouts for Line?
Recently, Samsung Venture Investment led a Series E investment round totaling US$ 22.5 million with a software provider, Open X Software Ltd, the creator of Samsung’s private mobile exchange platform. The investment aimed to enable ‘the global expansion of the company’, especially into mobile, as it competes with rivals such as search giant Google.
At the end of last week South Korea’s communications watchdog turned down bids by two Korean firms to set up the country’s fourth mobile operator.
Korean-made messaging app KakaoTalk launched its Game Platform in July 2012 and having launched on Android in Japan in November 2012, is now extending its advance into the Japanese market with the roll-out of its iOS version.
Japan and Korea present amazing opportunities for app developers, but fierce competition and unique characteristics means local knowledge and a finely tuned entry strategy is a must. This article aims to uncover some of the truths to help you succeed.
