Demoday, a web platform for Korean Startups, recently came up with a list of 100 hot Korean startups in 2013, and we thought this might be a great chance to write an introduction to the Korean startup world. Every week, we will introduce you to 10 startup companies that got into the list in alphabetical order. Here’s our list for this week: 4:33 Creative Lab (Gaming) Key People: Jun-Mo Kwon (CEO), Tae-hwan…
A Google spokesperson has reached out to TechInAsia who also posted this news, and pointed out that “it hasn’t done or offered any of the things described in this post.” References were initially sourced from ZDnet Korea (http://www.zdnet.co.kr/news/news_view.asp?artice_id=20140219145110). They have since taken down the articles used as reference for this article. We apologize for the inaccuracy of this post. Korea has long been a brand-obsessed shopping nation. Now Google aims to assist up-and-coming app…
Camp Mobile, an app developer that was acquired by Line last year has just announced that its mobile app, Whoscall, which is designed to protect users from “smishing,” or SMS phishing, has passed the 10-million-mark in cumulative downloads in about 40 countries worldwide. The downloading of Whoscall is now active in about 40 countries, with the mobile app being selected as the Best App of the Year 2013 at Google Play in seven…
Kakao Corp., developers of Korea’s favorite messaging service and social platform, Kakao Talk, will be listing its stock publicly next May. This follows the recent news that SundayToz also successfully listed its stock in August 2013, and demonstrates further growth in the domestic tech industry, that has been attracting much attention in the international press attention recently. What’s more interesting though is the potential opportunity that Facebook has presented following today’s news that…
The application period for JFDI’s next session is open, but only for a few short days, before decisions are made about which founders will join the program this time around. Apply here now. In the past year JFDI has worked with 19 teams from all over Asia and as program Director, Ray Wu, looked back on his experience leading entrepreneurs he realized the importance of what JFDI is doing to build the startup community in…
Naldo today announced a new online instant-delivery ordering service that aims to disrupt a domestic industry worth $5Bn. The company provides “immediate delivery of almost any item for B2B and B2C customers within a maximum timeframe of 90 minutes via a browser-based online ordering-system”. The existing offline instant-delivery market in Korea is already huge and sprawling, but Naldo aims to provide a much more streamlined and cost-efficient experience to customers. The early…
Published on the Wall Street Journal, February 11 2013 First Year Raises Efficacy Concerns; Government Says Project Continues to Improve In the past year, the South Korean government has sponsored a raft of overseas programs to give its young startups exposure to global tech trends. Government officials here hope that a thriving local startup scene could soon put fresh Korean technology names on the global stage—and they are sparing no expense to…
Reported by AllThingsD on Septemer 1st 2013 Japan’s Internet e-commerce giant Rakuten is set to purchase Viki, a premium video site that has been described as “Hulu for the rest of the world.” The deal was set to be announced next week, but after I queried the company about it, its CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani (whose nickname is Mickey), confirmed the transaction, although he declined to give the price. That would be $200 million, according…
Partnership creates first Korea-focused accelerator for tech startups with a dedicated Silicon Valley Fast Track™ program Silicon Valley-based BootstrapLabs, a global accelerator for foreign entrepreneurs and Seoul-based Coolidge Corner Investment (CCVC), a technology venture firm with $22M under management, today announce the formation of BootstrapAccelerator Korea, a Seoul-based 6 month accelerator program specifically designed to assist young and promising korean technology startups to relocate in Silicon Valley and build global businesses. Additionally,…
The Korean ecosystem is buzzing with the news that one of their own, translation service Flitto, has this week been crowned as the best startup in the World at the final of the Seedstars World global startup competition. The team at Seedstars spent almost nine months travelling to 20 different cities across the globe to find the best startups in each region. The regional winners were then invited to the grand final, and offered…
The Korean government has just announced the long-awaited news that the first “Start-up Visa” in Korea has been issued to a Korean-American entrepreneur, Jason Lee CEO of J.J. Lee Company. It is unknown why he was not able to apply for an F-4 visa, which is available for non-Koreans with Korean heritage, but it marks another stride forward in Korea’s massive push towards establishing its position as one of the world’s most vibrant…
Korean educational startup Smatoos has just launched an iOS app called Formula for English Conversation (our translation) for people in Japan and Korea, which focuses on improving English speaking skills, as reported in TechInAsia. It’s free, and the Android version will be released within the first quarter of this year. Like other English education apps out there, this app was developed to remove the common frustration of language learners who cannot come…
Korean researchers have developed a next-generation mobile communication technology that enables devices to directly communicate, long range, without going through a base station. The solution allows direct communication between LTE devices, a world first, and was successfully demonstrated it in the company’s mobile communication lab. ETRI’s technology was highlighted by the international standardization organization, 3GPP, as a stand out new-tech innovation last year and was praised for having a wider communication range…
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…
Korean startup Coinplug has closed an investment round paid partly in bitcoin. This news comes shortly after another Korean Bitcoin startup, Korbit, also raises $400k from a dream team of Silicon Valley investors, as reported by beSUCCESS here. Coinplug raised $400,000 from Cupertino-based fund SilverBlue, with half the amount raised in bitcoin and the rest in fiat currency. The startup plans to launch a digital currency exchange, wallet and merchant platform in Korea in mid-December….
Having achieved 18M downloads and the number 1 spot in 20 countries back in 2009 with Oven Break, the company’s first release, Korean game developer Devsisters has just released their global follow-up, Cookie Run, on the Line games platform. Despite early success with Oven Break, they struggled to maintain momentum and effectively withdrew from the global market, choosing to focus on their home turf in Korea. This was due struggles in maintaining…
Recent statistics show that 1.5 million to 2 million foreigners live in Korea, accounting for over 3 percent of the nation’s population. A range of programs are being offered to help them better adapt to life in Korean society. In a bid to help immigrant families, university student Ji Byung-ju came up with a unique idea early this year to provide immigrant mothers with postnatal services from midwives of the same nationality. “Despite…
Originally posted on TechCrunch Moms feeling guilty about baby-spamming Facebook with their child’s photos and their every precious moment now have a more private alternative for those updates, thanks to a new mobile social network called Smile Mom. The app, which is designed to connect moms with others nearby, has already grown to 14,000 users during its beta testing phase. The founders behind the new app are formerly of Paprika Lab, a…
Supported by President Park’s effort to foster a Korean creative economy, a deluge of cash flooded into the Korean startup ecosystem in 2013. Including many conferences hosted by the government-affiliated organizations, countless programs to assist startups were organized both domestically and abroad. Of the many themes these programs publicized repeatedly, one keyword that stood out was “Going Global”. The concept of “global” is trendy and attractive yet so vague and such a…
beSUCCESS, Korean startup media organization, events organizer, and global connector is happy to officially announce that their flagship startup event, beLAUNCH, is back in 2014 in a year that is already heating up to be one of the most promising for Korean, Asian, and Global entrepreneurship. The event will be held May 14 – 15 at the brand new Dongdaemun Design Plaza in the heart of Seoul. In addition, this year there…
