Between 1997 and 2001, 3 web portal giants were born in Korea in a mini .com boom that mirrored similar in the west. Daum, Naver and Nate utilized the incredible IT infrastructure that had been built through a massive, strategic cash injection from the Korean government that aimed (and succeeded) in powering Korea to the status of one of the most progressive technology hubs in the world. This legacy still prevails and…

투자자들이 얕본 똑똑한 시계, 크라우드 펀딩으로 대박 나다   2008년, 자전거 라이딩을 즐기던 25살의 네덜란드 교환학생 에릭 미기코브스키(Eric Migicovsky)는 문득 궁금했다. “휴대폰을 꺼내지 않고도 모든 정보를 손목에서 확인할 수 있다면 편하지 않을까?” 그는 당장 기숙사에 틀어박혀 디자인 스케치와 납땝질에 돌입했고, 수많은 프로토타입을 거친 뒤 블랙베리와 연동되는 스마트 손목시계 “인펄스(inPurse)”를 만들어낸다. 시장의 반응은 미지근했다. 포기하지 않은 그는 본격적인 비즈니스를 위해 알러타(Allerta)라는 회사를 세웠고 2010년 가을, 에어비앤비·드롭박스 등을 키워 낸 실리콘밸리의 벤처 창업지원회사인 “와이 컴비네이터”에…

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…

Mobile Shopping Users In Korea Exceed 20M For First Time A recent survey has shown that Koreans using mobile shopping applications has grown such that there are now more mobile shoppers than there are KakaoGame players in Korea. According to Rankey.com who conducted the survey, the number of shopping app users totaled 21.63M, as of January 2014. This figure is 2.7M higher than the number of KakaoGame Play users and represents a…

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…

C. Initial Public Offering 며칠 전에 S-1을 제출하였고, 지금은 quiet period (상장 전 S-1 제출이후 승인때까지 기간) 이다. 일단은 상장 관련 구체적인 이야기를 삼가해야 하기 때문에, IB, 변호사들만 SEC(미국 증시 감독 기관)에서 나오는 리뷰에 대응하면서 바쁘게 일하고 있다. 그래도 JOBS Act 이전과는 달리 이 기간동안에도 약간의 마케팅 활동을 할수 있게 되어, 예전보다는 좀 더 탄력적으로 시간을 활용하게 된 느낌이다. 이사회내에서만 상장 준비와 진행 과정에 대한 업데이트를 공유하고 있는데, 대략 8월초 정도면 상장할 수…

Samsung unveils Tizen-based wearable devices Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of smartphones, unveiled its first wearable devices that run on its own mobile operating system Tizen in Spain on Sunday, as it seeks to break its heavy reliance on Google Inc.’s Android software. The unveiling of the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, Samsung’s successors to the Galaxy Gear, which was released in September last year, also comes as…

There has been much talk about Facebook’s inability to crack the tough, localized Korean market, but in an interview with Facebook’s top brass in Korea, this situation seems to be improving. Korea is a key test market for Facebook and this should send a message to other global tech companies hoping to do business in Korea, particularly those engaged with expansion on mobile. It was also proven last year that Facebook was taking…

“트위터 입사 떨어졌다. 괜찮다. 입사했으면 장거리 출퇴근할 뻔 했다.” “페이스북을 지원했다가 떨어졌다. 엄청난 사람들과 인연을 맺을 좋은 기회였지만, 인생의 다음 모험을 기대해야겠다.” 여느 취업 준비생처럼 굴욕의 트윗을 남긴 이 남자는 5년 뒤 보란 듯이 자신이 만든 앱을 페이스북에 190억 달러(약 20조 원)에 팔아넘겼다. 왓츠앱의 공동 창업자 브라이언 액튼의 인생 역전 스토리이다. 브라이언 액튼이 운 좋게 실리콘밸리 스타 기업에 입사했다면 그는 CEO가 될 수도, IT 백만장자가 될 수도 없었을 것이다. 스타트업의 99%는 실패를…

이 블로그를 읽는 분 중 킥스타터(Kickstarter)를 모르는 분은 없을 거라고 생각한다. 큰 자금력이 없는 사람들 또는 대량 투자로의 접근성이 부족한 사람들도 생판 모르는 대중의 돈을 받아서 꿈을 실현 가능케 하는 아주 좋은 플랫폼이라고 생각한다. 이들 중 운이 좋으면 초기 목표했던 것보다 더 많은 관심과 펀딩을 받고, 이 운이 좋은 사람 중 더 운이 좋은 사람들은 단순한 제품을 넘어서 킥스타터 캠페인을 큰 비즈니스로 성장시킨다. 페블(Pebble)이 아주 좋은 사례라고 생각한다.우리가 투자한 회사들도 킥스타터랑 인디고고(Indiegogo)를…

The researchers at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) announced that they developed a head-mounted display–30 times faster processing speed compared to that of Google Glass. ‘K-Glass’, developed by Yoo Hoi-Jun, Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAIST, and his team, is a high-performance, extremely low-powered head-mounted display (HMD) embedding an augmented reality (AR) chip–30x faster and with 3 to 12x longer operating time than Google Glass. Despite the sensation that Google created…

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…

Google, which has been relatively slow in expanding its market presence in South Korea, is now fast catching up to local rivals in display Ad sales (one segment of online advertising), according to industry sources. This news will be a surprise to many who have been watching Google’s advance in Korea with skepticism, as reported by beSUCCESS only a month ago.   This news will also fall sweetly on the ears of…

The local market for mobile advertisement nearly doubled year-on-year in 2013, a government report showed Tuesday, amid the soaring number of smartphone users in the country. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the size of South Korea’s mobile advertising market was estimated at 416 billion won (US$392 million) last year, a leap from the 215.9 billion won (US$202.5 million) in 2012. Last year’s figure accounted for 4 percent of…

Reuters: Asian chat services KakaoTalk, LINE and WeChat threaten to overturn the mobile order of things, usurping the role of Google Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and telecoms carriers as gatekeeper to the consumer. Where these internet and telecoms giants once controlled the lucrative choke points of the industry, social messaging services are fast emerging as an alternative distribution channel for adverts, apps, and goods and services. For example, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat allows its more than…

With the launch of a large-screen smartphone-tablet hybrid on Thursday, LG Electronics is attempting to achieve an ambitious goal:  regain the No. 3 spot in the global smartphone market place. It may be a long shot. Last month, Chinese PC maker Lenovo announced plans to buy Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit for $2.9 billion. There has been a lot of coverage in the press about the recent Lenovo-Motorola deal, but internally LG has been focusing on boosting their own…

IBM Korea and HP Korea are curtailing their operations in Korea, demonstrating two further examples of overseas tech leaders that have struggled in Korea, a country proud of its domestic high-tech heritage. The cuts are the result of poor performance in both their HW and IT business in the Korean market. Other overseas tech giants that have failed to engage with the Korean market include Yahoo, who withdrew entirely at the end…

B. IPO(기업공개) 준비 미국 벤처 기업의 회수는 90% 이상이 M&A로 발생한다. 활발한 M&A는 벤처 산업의 가장 중요한 요소 중에 하나이다. M&A는 매각기업의 모든 성장단계에서 발생 가능하기 때문에, 직원 5명 이하의 초기기업부터 직원 500명의 대형 벤처회사까지 모든 회사가 대상이 된다. 즉, 물이 나갈 구멍이 있어야 물이 많이 들어와도 물이 썩지 않듯이, 벤처 자금 역시 나가는 구멍이 많아야, 많은 돈이 유입되어도 생태계가 건강하게 유지될 수 있는데, M&A는 벤처 자금이 생태계 밖으로 나가는 많은 구멍의…

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…