조중동, 한겨레, 오마이뉴스, 경향 신문, 뉴데일리, 한국일보, 미디어오늘, 머니투데이, 프레시안, 매일경제, 한국경제, SBS, 노컷뉴스, MBC, 위키트리, 전자신문, 시사인, ZDNet Korea, 블로터닷넷, 연합뉴스, 파이낸셜뉴스, 아이엠피터, 스포츠서울, KBS, YTN, 뉴시스, 서울경제, 이데일리, 서울신문, 스포츠동아, 세계일보, 내일 신문, 코리아헤럴드, 10 아시아, Tech IT!, beSUCCESS, 디지털타임스, 문화일보, 한겨레21, pxd, 딴지일보, Platum, 코리아타임스, 아시아경제, IT World, 스포츠한국, 스포츠월드, 스포츠경향, WSJ, 경인일보, 아이뉴스, 마이데일리, 코리아헤럴드(한글), Trend Insight, 등등  요즘 참 먹고 살기 바쁘다. 하지만 세상 돌아가는 일도 놓쳐서는…

Korea’s President Park has reason to be upset, as Obama allows a ban on some older Samsung smartphones to the US. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, “We express regret over the decision of the U.S. trade representative not to veto the U.S. International Trade Commission’s exclusion order against Samsung.” The selected phones are said to have infringed on two Apple patents (the 949 patent, which deals with commands on…

경영진 VS. 투자자 (4)   D. Series D 펀딩 계획 이사회에서 회사의 영엽현황, 사업전략 등에 대한 얘기가 끝나고 잠시 쉬기로 했다. 휴식 이후에는 Closed Session이다. 이사회는 일반적으로 Open Session과 Close Session으로 나뉜다. Open Session은 이사회 멤버뿐만아니라 회사의 주요 경영진 (영업담당 VP, 사업개발 VP, 재무담당 VP 등)과 투자자중에서 Board Observer (이사회 참관권리)를 가진 투자자 등이 참석을 하는데, Closed Session은 주로 이사회멤버만 참여한다. 그리고 M&A 등 중요하고 confidential한 얘기는 Closed Session에서 진행된다. 이제는 회사의 CEO인…

Ever heard of Pantech? Probably not recently. The struggling tech company recently lost its head, who stepped down after ordering almost 1/3 of the workforce to take a six month ‘vacation’. The company is now hoping to gain some credibility back (from staff and customers alike), with the release of a new 5.9-inch phablet: the VEGA Secret Note. Pantech has posted three consecutive quarters of serious losses starting at 81.2Bn won in…

Samsung releases ‘Galaxy Round’, the first phone with a curved display   The new “Galaxy Round” phone from South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics will make its debut in the domestic market this week, the nation’s top mobile operator SK Telecom said Wednesday. The most prominent feature of the latest Galaxy series phone is its curved display. It also features a 5.7-inch screen, the same as the Galaxy Note 3, with a…

Since the election of President Park earlier this year The Korean Government has embarked on an ambitious and expensive crusade to bring innovation to the fore of the Korean economy and to encourage a retreat from the country’s current dependence on a tiny number of huge family run businesses (Chebols), such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG and telecom SK. In order to achieve their ambition the government has been pumping money into 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…

Korean mobile game maker Gamevil has acquired Com2uS. Gamevil announced on October 4 that it signed an agreement to acquire a 21.37-percent stake in Com2uS for 70 billion won. Under the terms of the deal, Gamevil will have the controlling stake in Com2uS. Although Gamevil is the acquiring party in this transaction, it actually did less business than Com2uS last year. Gamevil reported full-year revenues of KRW 70.2 billion ($65.5 million), compared…

Samsung Electronics achieved a record-high performance in the third quarter of this year. Unlike market expectations that the growth of its smartphone business would slow, Samsung sustained a record-breaking pace in smartphone sales. Moreover, its semiconductor and telecommunications business, which slipped to supporting roles, reemerged as one of main actors. The most striking feature in the third-quarter results released by Samsung on October 4 is that its operating profit reached 10.1 trillion…

경영진 VS. 투자자 (3)   C. 경영진의 책임, 이사회의 책임 알버트가 투자한 후 벌써 다섯번째 이사회이다. 마크는 회사의 2011년 상반기 실적에 대해 프리젠테이션을 하면서, 향후 사업 방향 및 전략에 대해서 설명하였다. 이사회에 둘러 앉은 투자자인 잭, 제이콥, 알버트는 그다지 얼굴이 밝지 못하다. Series C를 $20M 펀딩한 이후, 생각보다는 더딘 속도로 회사의 트래픽이 증가하였고, 월정액 방식의 가입자 수익모델도 생각만큼은 수익을 창출하지 못하고 있다. 그래도 긍정적인 점은 BeeOrBug의 트래픽 규모 자체는 나쁘지는 않았고, 주요 파이낸셜…

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,…

Samsung is clearly taking its drive for innovation seriously, in order to compete with the likes of Apple and to cement its position as global tech / electronics leader. After spending $1Bn on a new innovation center in Silicon Valley, the tech giant is now set to introduce a radical new work policy in Korea, to spur creative thinking. Samsung will adopt a four-hour flexible working system company-wide on the condition that…

  For a number of years Korea has been firmly established as a global production base for core display materials. This is partly due to intense competition in the industry between the two domestic heavyweights LG and Samsung. Chinese display makers are making aggressive investments in the sector, but investments in the materials and components for next-generation display are still concentrated in Korea, and China has some way to catch up the…

As Korean President Park Geun-hye pushes to promote fair competition in the Korean economy (currently dominated by a small number of family-run conglomerates), the country’s number one internet company, Naver, has been coming under fire again for allegedly abusing its power.   Startup “Memo This” developed a service that allows users to stick memos on any website for use by anyone who vistits the site at a later date. The theory is…

LG Display and Samsung Display Co. have settled their longstanding quarrel over their display technology as the world’s two biggest display makers face growing competition from Chinese rivals and an industry slump, industry sources have claimed. LG Display and Samsung Display have been locked in a legal battle over organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology following probes into an alleged technology leak from Samsung Display to LG Display last…

Korea was the first nation where online gaming was a lucrative career. And, having lived in Korea for five years, I have seen the huge potential in the online gaming market here, which attracts gamers to “PC Rooms”, like the one below, 24 hours a day. But, surprisingly, Korean produced games are now losing the fight against foreign competition. It has been claimed recently that Korea is losing its reputation as an…

경영진 VS. 투자자   B. 이사회 전경 (Board Meeting) 투자후 첫 이사회날이다. 알버트는 이미 몇일전에 이사회 자료를 받아서 미리 검토해 보았다. 투자이후 처음으로 회사 현황을 이사회 자료 형태로 보는 것이기 때문에, 투자후 지난 두어달 동안의 경과에 대해 꼼꼼하게 살펴 보면서, 원래 투자할때 생각했던 것과 진행현황을 비교해 보았다. 회사의 트래픽은 예상대로 빠른 속도로 늘고 있었는데, 전체 트래픽 보다는 트래픽의 퀄러티에 대해 보다 신경이 쓰였다. 트래픽 자체는 신규 트래픽의 영향으로 전반적으로 증가하고 있는데, 기존…

기술 동향에 관심 있는 이들은 각종 미디어, 전문가들의 서적, 연구소의 보고서 등을 통해 최신 트랜드를 파악할 수 있다. 동향을 알자고 하는 것은 결국 그 흐름에 따른 미래를 먼저 가늠해 보자는 것이기에 과거 트랜드라고 불리운 것들 중에는 정말로 대세가 된 것이 있고, 아직은 그 기술이 도래하지 않았거나 완전히 헛짚은 것들도 분명 있을 것이다. 다가오고 있는 미래 동향을 노치고 싶지 않다면 앞서 언급한 것처럼 책과 보고서(삼성경제연구소나 정보통신연구원 등의)를 꾸준히 읽거나 Techcrunch나 beSUCCESS 같은 테크…