LTE-A was first launched in Korea in June 2013 and the government has just concluded it’s first LTE-A speed audit, naming SK’s service as the fastest available, in the country with the fastest mobile internet speeds in the world. There are three kinds of LTE services available. Regular LTE is a fourth-generation telecommunication service that offers data flow as fast as 75 megabits per second. LTE-A doubles the speed up to 150…

Naver and Daum have made a tentative decision to shell out millions of dollars as a form of self-penance for abusing their market dominance in Korea’s internet portal industry, according to the Fair Trade Commission yesterday. As we have reported several times recently their has been concern voiced about the increasing dominance of the two companies in the Korean internet search market. The money will be spent in ways that benefit Internet…

Cloud Computing Dissected: Everything You Need to Know About the Hottest Thing in IT Yahoo has been on an acquisition blitz as of late, amassing 29 acquisitions for the year 2013. The most recent acquisition was QuikIO, a personal cloud computing service. We are unsure as to what glorious product Yahoo plans on releasing with all these acquisitions but we know it is going to involve cloud computing. This comes as no…

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…

Last week saw Lee Hae-jin, CEO of NAVER Corp., the country’s largest Internet portal operator, ranked No. 1 among Korean stock-rich business owners, in terms of valuation gains on his stock holdings. The combined value of Lee’s shares rose to 1.1 trillion won (US$1.24 billion), more than a two-fold increase, from 507.4 billion won, posted at the end of December 2012, according to data released by market research firm FnGuide. Global Ambitions:…

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…

Korea’s contents industry exports, centering on gaming, is forecast to exceed $5 billion for the first time, an increase of over 10.% on last year. Sales in the sector are also expected to increase by 4.9% from last year, to KRW 90 trillion. The gaming industry will fuel this growth, with figures up 9.9% on last year and is likely to account for 60% of total contents industry exports from Korea in…

Samsung’s 4Q Operating Profit Likely to Fall Short of 10Tn Won Target Amid predictions that Samsung Electronics’ fourth-quarter operating profit will likely to fall short of their target of 10Tn won, the company’s stock price of Samsung Electronics hit a downward slope. Market watchers also predicted that this down-trend would continue into the first quarter of next year. According to financial information provider FnGuide on December 26, the consensus figures for Samsung…

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…

Many had thought that the plethora of law suits that we saw earlier this year between smartphone giants Samsung and Apple has all but disappeared, but now it has emerged that Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone maker, on Thursday suffered a legal defeat against Apple Inc. on its home turf after a local court ruled that Apple had not in fact violated its patents. The Seoul Central District Court ruled…

The growth of South Korea’s smart connected device market is expected to turn negative this year for the first time from growing market saturation, data showed on Tuesday. According to the data compiled by market researcher IDC Corp., the country’s smart connected device market, which includes smartphones and tablet PCs, is estimated at 21.85 trillion won (US$20.78 billion) for the year, down 7.9 percent from a year earlier. In terms of volume,…

 ‘투자자의 고민’ 6화 – Series B-1 펀딩 F. Series B-1 펀딩 드디어 알바 벤처스(Alma Ventures)로부터 계약내용협의서(Term Sheet)를 받았다. 알마 벤처스가 제시한 조건이 상당히 가혹하지만, 다행이라면 펀딩을 받아서 회사가 망하지 않았고 투자자의 지분도 약간은 살아있다는 점이다. 물론, 불행이라면 여하간에 회사의 가치가 많이 떨어졌다는 점이다. 이번 라운드는 다운 라운드(Down round)와 함께 회사의 지분구조에 많은 변화를 가져왔다. – 투자형태: Series B-1, 원래 Series C 이후에 Series D 라운드로 생각하고 있었으나, 다운 라운드와 함께 회사 지분구조의 변화를 주었다….

  [사진 : (좌) 스냅챗 초기 투자자 제레미 류, (우) 스냅챗 CEO 에반 스피겔] 페이스북 주커버그의 3조 원 현금 인수 제의를 거절한 스냅챗(SnapChat), 중국의 텐센트 역시 약 4조 원의 회사 가치를 인정하여 2,000억의 리드 투자 제안 역시 거절하였다. 에반 스피겔(영문 Evan Spiegel, 스냅챗 CEO)은 요즘 베니스의 해변에서 느긋하게 판돈을 올리며 상황을 살피는 중이다. 그에게 이처럼 여유로움을 안겨 준 이가 누구인가? 스냅챗의 가치를 발굴해 낸 벤처투자자 제러미 류(영문 Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners), 그의…

스마트폰, 태블릿 같은 모바일 기기는 일상 속 필수 요소로 자리잡은 지 오래다. 사람들은 확연하게 더 많은 시간을 모바일 기기와 함께 보내며, 그 추세는 끊임 없이 증가하는 중이다. 모바일 기기 산업이 이만큼 성장하게 된 데는 ‘이동성’이라는 특징이 가장 두드러진다. 그러한 연유로 ‘이동성’이라는 특성이 더욱 극대화되기를 바라는 모두의 욕구는 제조사들로 하여금 갈수록 더 얇아지고, 가벼운 제품을 만들어내도록 부추기고 있다. 이러한 상황에서 항상 대두되는 문제가 바로 모바일 기기와 데스크탑 PC와의 비교이다. 과거에 비해 엄청난 성능을…

E. 연계자금조달(Bridge Financing) – 일단 시간을 좀 벌자 비오버그(BeeOrBug)를 검토하던 미들필드 파트너스(Middlefield Partners LLC)와 알마 벤처스(Alma Ventures)중에서 미들필드는 투자를 패스하겠다는 연락을 보냈다. CEO인 마크는 미들필드에서 보낸 이메일을 이사회 멤버들에게 포워드하였다. 알버트도 미들필드 파트너스를 개인적으로 좀 알고는 있어서, 거기에서 투자할 가능성이 높지 않다는 것은 느끼고 있었다. 이름 그대로 중간의 어정쩡한 딜만 좋아하는 그런 벤처캐피털(이하 VC)이다. 이제는 알마 벤처스만 남은 것인가? 다른 이사회 멤버인 해밀튼 벤처스(Hamilton Ventures)의 제이콥은 기존투자자들끼리 브릿지하는 안을 제안하였다. 약 $2M…

C. Downround – 투자자와 창업자 모두 책임져라 첫째, downround 상황이다. downround는 이전 투자가격 보다 낮은 가격으로 펀딩을 받는 것으로, 보통주와 우선주 투자자 모두 지분율이 상당히 희석된다. 어쨋든 downround가 무슨 이유에서 발생했든, 회사의 가치가 떨어졌다는 것은 회사와 투자자 모두의 과실이라고 볼 수 있다. 회사의 창업자/경영진이 사업을 잘 못 수행한 이유가 가장 크겠지만, 투자자 역시 지난 라운드에서 회사 가치를 너무 높게 평가했을 수도 있고, 투자자가 회사의 이사회에서 제대로 활동하지 못한 이유도 있을 것이고, 기존투자자가…

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…

SparkLabs Global Ventures is launching a new $30 million seed-stage fund that will invest in early-stage companies looking to rapidly scale their innovations. The founding partners are Bernard Moon, Net Jacobsson, Frank Meehan, Jimmy Kim, John Lee, and Jay McCarthy.  Bernard, Net and Frank will be the primary operating partners. “SparkLabs Global Ventures was founded on our strong momentum from our SparkLabs accelerator in South Korea, where we have already invested in 16…

투자자의 고민 (1) A. Throw Good Money After Bad VC 업계가 실리콘밸리 생태계의 접점에 있고, 경력이나 학력 모든면에서 가장 뛰어난 사람들이 모이는 분야이다. 하지만 그렇다고 하더라도 VC를 하는 사람들이 매순간 이성적이고 합리적인 판단을 내리는 것은 아니다. 특히 회사가 어려운 시점이 되면, 잘못된 투자의사결정을 했을리 없다는 방어기재, 자신의 투자기업에 대한 비이성적 믿음, 자신의 VC 파트너십내에서의 위치, 벤처 업계의 명성 등등 여러 생각들이 맞물리면서 망해가는 회사에 지속적인 후행투자를 하는 경우가 있다. 이를 VC 업계에서…

Who will come out as a winner in the new autumn version of the smartphone battles? Autumn 2013 will see a string of new smartphone releases, with the race already on. ‘Vega Secret Note,’ the ‘Galaxy Round,’ the ‘iPhone 5S’ and the ‘Vu 3’ will all be released in short succession over the next few months, with an advantageous position in the lucrative Korean market going to the victor. A fierce marketing…