Having achieved close to $15M in annual sales, AdLatte intends to expand into 20 new markets across North America, Europe, and Asia in 2013.

Video SNS service, RECOOD from Seoul based AHIKU Corporation is already available on iOS and from Q2 2013 will be available on Android. The company recently spoke to us, highlighting the startling similarities with Twitter’s recently launched Vine service.

KakaoPage, a platform that allows its users to market and sell their creative contents (audio, video, text) was launched last week. What exactly is it? Is the goal of making one million “profit-earning” partners within three years along with the launch feasible?

Wizard Work’s ‘Som Note’ was released recently on ‘Chatting Plus’ that was launched by Kakao Japan last month. It currently stands at 6th place on Google Play rankings- ahead of Naver’s Naver Memo (ranked 10th) and Evernote (ranked 21st). beSUCCESS investigates for their success.

Happy Lunar New Year to all readers! Here’s the list of startups which we have written about in the past seven days.

beSUCCESS covers weekly news in Korea, 10 Feb.

JFDI is Singapore’s most established accelerator. They have just announced the eight teams who will join their program for its first 2013 outing, starting in February.

1. KT Telecom Announces 100Bn won Fund for Content startups : 2. President elect Promises to boost vital M&A activity : 3. Korean customers increasingly happy to pay for mobile apps : 4. More LTE Means Larger Platform for App Developers : 5. South Korea’s IPO Market Set To Double In Size This Year

In China and Korea mobile advertising has been viewed by 50% of consumers, while in Japan the figure is only 19%. If you are running a mobile marketing campaign, avoid Japan.

Since January 29, Line users have been doubling in Hong Kong. Just 2 weeks before that, Line also passed its 100 million user mark on January 18th. What are some of the lookouts for Line?

Recently, Samsung Venture Investment led a Series E investment round totaling US$ 22.5 million with a software provider, Open X Software Ltd, the creator of Samsung’s private mobile exchange platform. The investment aimed to enable ‘the global expansion of the company’, especially into mobile, as it competes with rivals such as search giant Google.

At the end of last week South Korea’s communications watchdog turned down bids by two Korean firms to set up the country’s fourth mobile operator.

Korean-made messaging app KakaoTalk launched its Game Platform in July 2012 and having launched on Android in Japan in November 2012, is now extending its advance into the Japanese market with the roll-out of its iOS version.

Japan and Korea present amazing opportunities for app developers, but fierce competition and unique characteristics means local knowledge and a finely tuned entry strategy is a must. This article aims to uncover some of the truths to help you succeed.

How about them apples? Apple is now the number 1 mobile phone vendor in the US, with a record of 34% market share. Samsung will surely be keen to recapture that title in 2013 by launching improved new models such as the rumored Galaxy S4. LG is still the third largest player in the American mobile phone market. beSUCCESS investigates the three key reasons why Apple’s sales improved, but what do you think?

beSUCCESS covers weekly news in Korea, 3 Feb.

In the past top Korean business men have used their position to escape jail, but in the recent presidential election ‘democratizing business’ in Korea was a major talking point, by both front-runners, amid a growing wave of discontent among the public that top business tycoons have been getting off lightly, despite clear cases of corruption.

We reported last week that in-house developer teams at large Korean Corporations were earning their keep by copying mobile apps from small-time entrepreneurs. Now news that a small-time entrepreneur from Korea is the culprit of a similar theft.

More than one in three people, 38%, have recommended a brand they “like” or follow on a social network. On average, almost one in four people worldwide, 22%, said they bought a brand because a friend recommended or followed the brand online.

In the face of South Korean lay-offs Chinese corporations are poaching skilled IT workers from Korea, promising promotions and better pay. The exodus could hurt Korea’s long term aspirations for increasing the country’s profile as a top IT center.