It’s been a while since we have reported any news from Kakao Talk, which developed mobile messenger KakaoTalk in 2012. The company now plans to make forays into the news services market, having established itself as one of the ‘new platforms’, which have been billed as one of the hot trends to watch for 2014. Kakao is preparing to provide news service on a curation format that enables users to take a…

Korean camera app Cymera, developed by SK Communications, has surpassed 60 million in cumulative downloads. Launched in March 2012, Cymera achieve over the 10-million downloads in just nine months and reached the 60-million milestone in just one year. It is also worthy of note that Cymera achieved 45 million downloads in foreign countries, a rare feat to be achieved by a Korean dev-house. Cymera gained popularity first in Southeast Asian countries, including…

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…

According to a recent report Korea’s tech start-ups enjoyed positive growth in sales, operating profits and net profits alike in 2013, which will give President Park’s government a boost as they conclude their first year in office, and a year that saw a surge in government involvement with the tech startup community in Korea. According to the report startup’s average sales amounted to 6.72 billion won last year, with their average operating…

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…

This year I have been on a record number of business trips overseas, some solo and some with Korean startups. All with the aim of brokering closer international business ties and developing startup success across boarders. I have learned a lot and would like to share some tips from my experience to help you make the most of what can be expensive mistakes if you are not prepared. This post was inspired…

Just over a month ago 10 Korean startup teams departed for Singapore on a month-long acceleration program jointly organized by NIPA (National IT Promotion Agency) and beSUCCESS. The teams were based in the well known Singapore startup hub of Block 71, where they were able to tap into the advanced startup community surrounding local stars like JFDI Asia, Singtel’s investment arm Innov8, and South East Asia’s startup media heavyweight, e27 which also…

South Korea, 20 December 2013 – Leading mobile couple application, Between, today announced that it has crossed the 5 million global downloads milestone. This announcement comes together with the launch of Between 2.0, the first major update since its official release in March 2012, as the company continues its push into the global market. South Korea is currently Between’s strongest market, with 60% of downloads coming from the country. Japan and China…

People are spending more time on mobile devices than ever before and the trend is only growing. Mobile devices are slim and light in order to maximize portability, and thus compared to desktop computers they have poor storage as batteries take up a lot of space. This makes them ideal output devices but poor input devices due to the absence of keyboard and minimal storage. Therefore most people store important stuff on…

Bitcoin is changing finance the same way the web changed publishing, and in the wake of its emerging status as a “proper” currency, new ventures are rushing to get in on the action. So too is Korbit, a Korean startup founded by Tony Lyu. There is a Bitcoin craze in Silicon Valley at the moment. Exiting startups in the space are popping up everywhere with Bitcoin startup accelerator Boost VC leading the…

As reported by SD Japan, Seoul-based LOC&ALL, the startup behind car navigation app Kimgisa, has raised $2.7M from Japan’s CyberAgent Ventures and two Korean investment firms, Neoplux and Partners Venture Capital. Prior to this round, the company had raised seed funding $930,000 from Partners Venture Capital in January. With these new funds, they plan to intensify their engineering and marketing efforts with the initial goal of expanding to Japan, with Mainland China and Indonesia to follow later….

Kakao Music, the most recent service from Korean social messaging platform Kakao Talk, passed 1.2M downloads  in just four days, after being launched. Kakao Music is a service developed jointly by Kakao, which is famous with its popular mobile messenger KakaoTalk, and Neowiz Internet, one of the top gaming companies in Korea. As a result of the successful partnership it is expected that Kakao Music will immediately become a strong rival to…

K-Cube Ventures invests $500M won in Mobile Beauty Content Company “Seed Paper” Seed paper shares practical beauty tips for its users through its mobile lifestyle content platform. The service is linked KakaoTalk Plus Friend, which is a premium service from Korea’s top mobile messaging platform, KakaoTalk. Well-known experts in the field of beauty and cosmetics, including Hong Cha, Saem-Mul Jung, and Hyun-Cheung Woo, provide practical tips through the service, which includes tips…

Date: Tuesday, October 1st, 2013 Location: COEX Conference Hall Room #318, Seoul, Korea Schedule:  1:30pm-6:00pm 1:30pm-2:45pm  Intro and 1st half of demo+pitch 2:45pm-3:00pm  Break 3:00pm-3:50pm  2nd half of demo+pitch 3:50pm-4:00pm  Break 4:00pm-5:00pm  M&A: Inside View 5:00pm-6:00pm  Networking Presenting Companies StyleWiki iBabyBox MangoPlate Zoyi HeyBread Lateral DesignPlusD TrakInvest Short Program (M&A: Inside View) Get the insiders’ view of the M&A process from entrepreneurs who have gone through it.  Learn about what led to their decision to sell,…

At the beGlobal 2013 Tech Startup Conference, ten Korean Tech startups pitched their companiesin competition for the attention and capital ofjudges and investors. The ten startups that participated were Korbit (Bitcoin exchange & platform), SEWORKS (mobile security), KnowRe (online adaptive learning program), Gist (news aggregation/summarization), Shakr (video creation), Smile Family (mobile application for mothers), IDINCU (mobile market research), Cultstory (mobile travel and tourism application), Flitto (social media translation platform) and VCNC (private…

“I try to look for ideas that will break down borders,” said Adam Draper, the youngest venture capitalist in the Draper family. Global venture investing, funding startups internationally, runs in the Draper blood. The eldest of the three, Bill Draper, first started working as a venture capitalist for his father in 1959, after fighting in the Korean War. In 1986, Bill Draper moved on to become the head of the United Nations…

Visumé is a new kind of resume and portfolio management tool with a visual and mobile approach. Whilst LinkedIn is stiff and rigid, Visumé targets a more creative audience, namely designers and artists. In times of globalization and the rise of mobile connectivity, and in a climate when more people than ever are freelancing, Easyworks Universe saw the need for a better way to connect individuals and their prospective employers. “The brilliance…

Don’t want to follow a boring tour guide with a white flag guiding you to boring and overcrowded tourist spots? myRealTrip is an open marketplace for local guides and travellers that offers authentic customized guide services. Simply put, MyRealTrip is crowd-sourced tour guides in English, Korean and Japanese. Traditional tours are often devoid of personal touch and often lure travellers into trips that are geared towards commercial advantage, and often misses the…

One of the leading app developers in Korea, Malang Studio, won second place at the 2013 National Mobile Application Competition held August 24-25 in Beijing, China. Malang Studio was the only non-Chinese finalist and winner at the event, which was open mainly to local Chinese app developers. Last month we wrote about Malang Studio, creators of the popular alarm app, AlarmMon, and it’s heavy focus on gamification, something that seems to be…

Buddy Up is a diary and journal service for users in their teens or early twenties. Unlike other diary services, Buddy Up offers a more gamified service that leads to fun and unexpected excitement when using. Last week we told you about the Korean startup WePlanet’s STEP Journal. This week we give you another Korean made diary/journal service but with a different twist. The key differentiator of Buddy Up from their competitors…