Cautious optimism abounds across Korea’s fast-growing startup scene. Following a national policy shift that has recognized the realities and opportunities of the present age, Korean entrepreneurial talent is finally receiving the level of public sector support needed for success. The export-oriented growth formula that helped Korean conglomerates drive economic development for decades following the Korean War is unlikely to continue its impressive historical returns, and the Park administration has sought to replace…

As reported by Business Korea, the  Korean government recently announced that it plans to relax regulations on new innovation-driven industries, including as financial technology (fintech) and the Internet of Things (IoT). This is a positive regulatory signal for local startups in these industries that have struggled against regulation. It also bodes well for the new startup accelerator in Seongdo, that will run its first hardware / IoT / Smart home program in 2015. At…

Korea is a country traditionally tied up in confusion societal order with a fierce preservation of tradition and status quo. Yet with this backdrop for tradition, Korea has obtained the highest levels of Internet access and lighting speed connections with intent now to upgrade to an unprecedented next-generation 5G wireless service that will be able to download full-length movies in one second. While the older generation listen to calming folk song and…

In January in Davos, Switzerland, South Korea’s first female President, Park Geun-Hye pushed forward with a multi-billion “Creative Economy” policy. Although Korea has seen a great rise in GDP and living conditions in the last 50 years, President Park now believes the current economic growth environment in Korea has reached its limit, and just like startups often need to, she has decided to pivot the Korean economy to embrace innovation as a…

President Park Geun-hye championed her creative economy vision at this year’s meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She suggested creative economy as a way out for countries experiencing slow growth amid high unemployment and income inequality.At the same time, she pitched Korea as an attractive place to invest to the participants in the forum. She held one-on-one meetings with the CEOs of some of the world’s top corporations to…

With the government’s measures to create a virtuous circle out of the start-up and venture ecosystem in full swing this year, there is growing anticipation that this year will be the first year of the second venture era. The anticipation is due to the fact that most of the venture industry’s long-cherished desires were already fulfilled. “Now it is time for the market to swing into high gear,” stated representatives of venture…

Korea’s contents industry exports, centering on gaming, is forecast to exceed $5 billion for the first time, an increase of over 10.% on last year. Sales in the sector are also expected to increase by 4.9% from last year, to KRW 90 trillion. The gaming industry will fuel this growth, with figures up 9.9% on last year and is likely to account for 60% of total contents industry exports from Korea in…

Facebook’s Co-Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg will visit Korea at the end of this month, according to Yonhap News. Seeing that Bill Gates and Larry Page visited Korea recently, it seems likely that Zuckerberg, too, will discuss the future of IT with the Park administration. People are speculating that he will visit Cheongwadae (the presidential residence in Korea, or the ‘blue house’) at the end of June. He will be spending about…