Investing in Korean startups can be a tough job for Venture Capitalists. Despite amazing growth over the last two to three in the venture ecosystem, we will have to wait for a further five years or more to see the fruits of this second push for a creative economy in Korea over the last ten years. As we know, VCs base their earning potential on few successful investments that can generate enormous…

Last week Cookie Run, one of the most popular mobile games in Korea, celebrated its one year anniversary after a year that has been huge the game and the developer team behind it. The game has seen four consecutive quarters of outstanding revenue and two months ago released on LINE. Since this global release, Cookie Run had over 10 million downloads in Thailand alone, and the game continues to dominate in Asia…

Within two weeks of joining Shakr, a Seoul and San Francisco-based video creation startup, I was on a 4:00 p.m. flight to San Francisco to represent the company at Google’s annual conference for it’s biggest advertising partners. The plane touched down at 9:00 a.m., I went into the bathroom at the airport to put on a suit, grabbed a “you might need two hands for that” sized black coffee, and went straight…

Originally posted on The Bridge: Kei Kajitani is the Japan general manager of Korea-based VCNC, heading up the company’s efforts to promote their couples app Between here in Japan. After the app’s recent 2.0 release back in December, it appears to have picked up some steam in a number of markets around the world, including Japan where it is has ranked as the top social networking iOS app since Wednesday. He tells…

When asked about his ambition for KPOP UNITED, CEO Richard Choo said; “We are looking at every point of disruption in the K-pop industry and aim to leverage many of the exciting opportunities that we are seeing.” He believes that by helping stamp Korea on the map as a purveyor of the best of modern pop culture through K-pop he is also increasing the brand power of Korea as a nation. With…

Post written by Terence Lee at TechInAsia: Facebook is perhaps the most engaging app in the world, with 1.15 billion monthly active users and a staggering average daily usage of 20 minutes. But if there’s something people look at more than the social network, it’s probably their smartphone homescreens. That’s what EnKino, a startup out of South Korea, is counting on. It wants to turn homescreens into advertising space that can be sold to brands…

이스라엘에 도착한 당신. 이스라엘 스타트업이 모두 모여있는 경제 중심지 수도 텔아비브에 왔지만 이스라엘 지도에는 아름다운 관광지만 표시되어 있을 뿐 여기가 스타트업의 메카라는 것을 알려주는 그 어떤 좌표도 없다. “아니, 이스라엘은 스타트업의 생태계잖아요!” 라고 걸어다니는 사람에게 물으면, “스타트업이 뭔데요?”라고 되묻는 상황이 벌어지기도 한다. 필자 역시 스타트업 인터뷰를 다니기 시작하면서 이스라엘 스타트업이 텔아비브 곳곳에 촘촘히 자리하고 있음을 깨달았다. 그냥 아름다운 건물이거니 하며 무심코 지나간 건물이 스타트업 사무실이 있는 빌딩이라는 걸 알고나면, 이 도시가 보물찾기의…

 비즈니스맨이라면 공감할 것이다. 회사의 막중한 임무를 띠고 행사나 모임에 참석하는 경우 본인의 명함이 무기로 행사장에 가득 찬 사람들을 한 사람씩 상대해야 하는 그런 순간을. 이 때 발이 넓은 친구가 있어 당신이 정말 필요한 사람들만을 소개해줄 수 있다면 정말 고마울 것이다. 이스라엘 스타트업 비자보(Bizzabo)는 행사나 모임이 있을 때 당신이 원하는 사람들을 미리 파악하고 본행사 때 마음껏 네트워킹을 해서 행사를 알차게 즐길 수 있게 도와준다. 비자보는 2012년 7월에 보아즈 카츠, 알론 알로이 그리고 에란 벤…

Earlier today we talked about the rise of Korean startups… and what’s a better example than KnowRe? KnowRe is the recent Winner of Gap App Challenge (1st Place) 2013, Grand Prize Winner at Global K-Startup 2012, and Winner of Plug and Play Tech Center at beLAUNCH 2012? In much excitement, we interviewed the Co-Founder and Vice-President of KnowRe, Seojoon (Simon) Kim who was incredibly humble about this accomplishment. You can read our…

350년 전, 1600백 년대 종교전쟁과 마녀사냥, 신대륙발견, 식민지 개척으로 대표된던 유럽대륙의 역사적 모습은 ‘스토리텔링’이라는 문화의 출발점이 되었다. 대향해와 미신의 시대, 그 역사적 배경에 ‘스토리텔링’은 자연스러운 사회적 유행 문화가 됐다. 사람들은 자신들의 이야기를 조금 더 시각적으로 생동감 있게 표현하고자 새로운 방식을 고안했고, 최초의 ‘슬라이드’라는 개념이 만들어졌다. 유령의 실체를 그리기 위해 촛불의 빛을 이용해 교회벽에 유리 위 이미지들을 투사시키는 방법으로 시작된 슬라이드는 이후 시각적인 방식으로 스토리를 전달하기 위한 핵심적인 요소가 되었다. 오늘날의 파워포인트, 키노트,…

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…

Daniel Tudor is a British journalist and first-time author based in Seoul, Korea. His book Korea: The Impossible Country will be released in November 2012. We caught up with Daniel to learn more about the book.