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…

With Vine and Instagram dominating the image and video sharing market, is there enough room for another player? Korean startup AHIKU thinks their app Bb has a chance. But with a plethora of photo and video apps coming out of Asia, Ahiku is facing a tough battle to make a stand in the market. However, with a small team and low overheads combined with existing partnerships with companies such as KT, STP…

Stuck at work doing overtime, and not able to get home to feed your pet? No need to worry, just pick up your smartphone and at the press of a button you’re able to dispense food from SinglePet’s hardware at home. The service even allows pets and their owners to interact through a live video stream direct to a mobile handset, whenever and wherever they are so that you easily can check…

Is your old high school journal sitting in a bookshelf collecting dust, never to be written in again? Although some people might like the novelty of handwriting their journal, WePlanet is looking to bring the classic format into the 21st century with its new STEP Journal service, adapted for todays smartphone ridden world. STEP allows individuals to easily and swiftly record their daily lives by using an intuitive icon-based interface and by…

Don’t want to be one of THOSE couples? You know the sort, always sending cute messages to each other’s Facebook wall, cluttering your newsfeed with annoying content that really should only be between the two lovebirds. If so, smartphone app Between is something for you. Created by Korean Startup VCNC, Between is a SNS just for two. It provides a private space for all lovers to communicate and share their beautiful memories…

iamschool is a Korean startup dedicated to improving communication within the often-outdated education market. With their tagline “Easier Communication, Better Education” the startup, run by parent firm iamcompany, believes that learning can be improved with improved communication and feedback mechanisms between students, parents and the educational institution. For this purpose, iamschool has developed a platform that enables these key stakeholders a means to communicate and collaborate, with the end goal of improving efficiency and…

Memebox is Korea’s No. 1 beauty subscription commerce service that provides its customers with 5-6 beauty items every month for a nominal monthly fee of $15. Memebox aims to deliver the most exciting beauty experience to consumers in a one-stop service for beauty shopping. Now they are looking to expand their sights beyond the borders of their home country and establish themselves globally, starting first by entering the SE Asian market. Going…

Could such a mundane and boring daily routine such as turning off your alarm and getting up in the morning be fun and engaging? Malang Studio, the creators of AlarmMon think so. AlarmMon is a gamified alarm app that aims to address the pain of getting out of bed in the morning by rewarding early risers with various in-app rewards through their favourite animation characters. Going global: Malang Studio recently accompanied beSUCCESS…

Seedstars World is an exclusive worldwide competition to discover the best startups in emerging startup scenes. The competition is taking place March to December 2013 in 20 cities across the globe. One startup per country will be selected to participate in the final, held in Spring 2014, in Switzerland. The winners will receive prizes such as equity based investments, entry into acceleration programs, advertising and hosting services. How to apply? Visit this link and fill…

Does getting paid just to unlock your smartphone’s lock screen sound too good to be true? Not if you ask AppDisco, the maker of LatteScreen, a mobile app that places advertisements on your phone’s lock screen and rewards you for swiping through for more information but also for simply unlocking your phone. Regardless of whether they “click-through” or not, users get monetized to have LatteScreen installed on their Android phone and can…

SK Planet, part of South Korea’s biggest mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its accelerator program ‘101 Startup Korea’ for early stage startups yesterday. The application period will last until August 16, followed by application screening and an interview round. Once the final participants are selected, the incubation program will start on September 2 and will continue until February 28, 2014. SK Planet, established in October 2011 as a wholly owned subsidiary of…

This Week’s Startup – DreamCosmo   DreamCosmo <Dreamallow>     Our Dream is to help your “Dreams Come True”- DreamCosmo “It was all started from my dream. My dream to help others’ dreams come true!” said Mr. Shin,  the founder of DreamCosmo. DreamCosmo’s first ever app service in public called “dreamallow” is now getting popular in Korea by providing various interesting tools to achieve users’ goals. Dreamallow presents challenge missions in various…

This Week’s Startup – Frograms   Frograms <Watcha>   Yes, We are “Crazy”- Frograms “We believe that best company is where you have best co-workers. We always try to be best co-workers to each other. We are fun and happy and we make amazing products.” That’s all about their company presentation on their official website. Frograms, unlike other traditional Korean companies, focuses on the efficiency and quality of the work rather than working-attitudes….

We wrote previously about the current situation in the South Korean startup ecosystem. We said that the global startup capital is declining whereas the Korean venture world is seeing more fundings, more startups, and more enthusiasm. The rise of startups in Korea really started with KakaoTalk i n 2010, and since then we have seen $191 million US dollars raised in Korea (in 2013, up from $189 mil in 2012), and increase…

Bon Angels Early Stage VC & Veteran Pacemaker There is a visionary behind such rapid growth of Korean Startups.  Bon Angles Venture Partners, as a first ever investment company specialized in startups established in 2010, has been engaged in partnering with early stage IT companies and made a great success. What makes Bon Agels different from other investment companies, not to mention about their specialties, is a communication even before the company’s…

Noom Walk is a free pedometer app that counts your steps and shares your progress with friends. Noom Walk is based on software that collects sensor data from the user’s mobile phone. Instead of relying on expensive wearable accessories, Noom Walk utilizes the smartphones users already own. In the future, Noom may explore integration with wearable devices, but for now Noom believes smartphones are sufficient. “We believe that smartphones can do 90%…

This Week’s Startup – Jelly Bus Inc.   JellyBus Inc. <Picsplay Pro> <Official Web Link> Anyone can make awesome photos with us! Whether you are an unskilled user or a photo experts, Jelly Bus assures that you can make a stunning photo by this photo editing app service “Picsplay pro”. As it is called an Image processing engine, it provides a basic features and cutting-edge technologies. For example, its newest HDR functions…

This Week’s Startup – Woowa Bros.   Woowa Brothers <Baedal Minjok> <Official Website Link> “If you have ever been to South Korea, what is the most surprising part ?” Most of answers to this questions are predictable; foods, people, culture, and nature. But there is one answer unexpected; food delivery service. Food delivery service can be seen almost everywhere in South Korea bringing convenient, city life-style. With one easy phone call, you…