On the 4th December, Shakr (http://shakr.com/), a Korean startup company received fundings from the Super Angel Fund, 500 Startups (http://500.co/) for the first time. This is a huge milestone for Korean startup companies, with an even bigger implication for the Korean startup ecosystem.

Research and Markets, an international market research and market data firm announced the addition of the “The Future of Mobile Health Market in Korea” report to their offering.

A whirlwind networking day with networking extraordinaire, James Jung (Founder and CEO, beSUCCESS).

Today, we have launched new logos for beSUCCESS and beLAUNCH 2012 ! Our friends at Seoul based application development and UI/UX designing company Darez Inc have helped us in designing our new identity.

One of the most influential IT service providers in Korea SK C&C has bought a stake in Yunong Electronics (IT and Commerce Company in China) to proceed their new e-commerce business in the farming region of China.

Samsung kept its No.1 position in the Global smartphone market the in 3rd quarter of 2012. According to Bloomberg, Samsung sold 5,6300,000 smartphones in the 3rd quarter of 2012 which is the highest record in global telecom market.

Since 2010, SK telecom suffered a 28.3% reduction in their overall SMS service, and fears a further 32.3% decline by the end of next year if the current trend persists. Their SMS count per person dropped from 1,819 message per person in 2010 to a mere 1,268 in 2011. It is expected to continue reducing, as the count as of June 2012 was 429 messages per person.

Samsung Electronic’s Smartpad ‘Galaxy Note 10.1’ sales have gone through the roof; its daily sales rate of 1800 sales per day well exceeds the number of iPads sold per day of a mere 500. Given that the sales of the iPad series’ exceeded the Galaxy tab series by 24 times, this phenomenon is unusual yet anticipated.

The new stereoscopic technology ‘Sound Ball’ being developed in South Korea revealed that they have developed a system where virtual speakers can be placed anywhere – even right next to your ear.

CEO of Samsung Electronics CE, Boo-Keun Yoon outlined Samsung’s goal to be the 1st choice for consumer electronics by 2015.

Anypang, South Korea’s mobile-based, HEXA style puzzle game, with 18 million smartphone downloads and 7 million daily users, played on KAKAOTALK Platform. Anypang’s sales projection is reaching 250,000,000 won (224,000$) on a daily basis. It’s service used some sensible choice architecture with multi-level marketing strategy

NTT DOCOMO, INC., Japan’s leading mobile operator and provider of integrated services centered on mobility, and KT Corporation, South Korea’s leading telecom operator, have agreed to develop a cross-border e-money service that would enable DOCOMO customers with compatible smartphones purchased in Japan to use a prepaid e-money service called “Cashbee” in South Korea.

Gloops prides itself in having 427 employees, annual sales of ¥ 237 billion, ordinary profit of ¥ 5.8 billion, and net earnings of approximately ¥ 30 billion (as at June 2012). The fact that it is well ahead of major Korean mobile game companies in terms of profit is one of the first things that catch one’s eye – out of many

Clause 2.25 was introduced in Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines that will effectively render Kakaotalk gaming services unusable.

There are various speculations as to the reasons for the delay. While some claim that it is due to the tension and litigation history between Apple and Samsung Electronics; others claim that it is because there is a shortage in supplies; others speculate that it is due to the delay in optimization of 850㎒ LTE (Long Term Evolution).

BLUELAB is currently preparing an official announcement with regards to the above matter and are also in search of a new Korean publisher.

According to the Korean investment consultancy E-trade Investment, the mobile puzzle board game ‘Candy Pang’ developed by WeMade is rapidly advancing through the ratings board; on the 1st of October which marked the first week of launching, it set the record of whopping 6,000,000 downloads and it was increased to a further 8,000,000 all within three days.

South Korean company Nexon, a global leader in free-to-play online games, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding common shares of gloops, Inc. (“gloops”), a leading developer of mobile games for DeNA’s Mobage platform in Japan, for JPY 36.5 billion in cash

Tapjoy a mobile advertising and publishing platform, recently announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SK Planet, an affiliate of SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest telecommunications company.

South Korea has the world’s highest number of broadband services per capita and into 2012 over 35% of the population and 95% of households were broadband subscribers according to a report by international market research and market data firm Research and Markets.