Kakao Corp., the company behind Korea’s biggest mobile messaging platform, aims to launch a wallet service in the next few months. This is the most recent addition to the Kakao platform, as the company continues to diversify its portfolio of services for users. It is hoped that Kakao Corp.’s namesake payment platform ‘Bank Wallet Kakao’ will help boost the ironically nascent mobile wallet industry in South Korea. Ironic, because Korea is praised…

Is Korea once again employing protectionist policies rather than embracing the opportunity presented by progress? Seoul is proud of being labelled one of the the most progressive tech-focused cities in the world. The capital has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world. Its residents are well-known for their rapid tech adoption. Additionally it’s administration has been pushing a move towards innovation and tech development. However,  Uber will likely be…

After a period of rampant speculations it has been reported that Line Corp.,which now boasts almost half a billion users, has filed confidentially for an initial offering in the U.S. It is expected that the company will seek a dual-listing in New York and Tokyo. This, according to a report our on Bloomberg. While the details have not been released publicly by Line, it is believed that Morgan Stanley (MS) is managing the listing…

This article was co-authored by Alan McGlade (Digital Entertainment Ventures) and Nathan Millard (beSUCCESS) and appeared on Forbes on July 18 2014. As little as five years ago Korea’s startup scene was undistinguished, but now the nation has taken an important step towards establishing itself as a key technology hub in the Asia Pacific region and an essential partner for global investors and tech businesses. Two young Korean startups have gained the…

Writepath Inc. has recently secured $500k from B-Dash Ventures and Pinehurst Advisors. The team intends to use the funds to further expand into Asian markets outside their base of Taiwan, with a focus on the huge opportunity in Korea. Founded in 2009 WritePath provides multi-lingual editing services and online translation solutions. Currently the company serves 22 countries and has three services in the market. One such, Top Admit, is now being touted…

자신의 정체를 드러내지 않고 다른 사람들과 의견을 공유할 수 있는 애플리케이션, ‘시크릿(Secret)’은 은밀한 주제나 논란거리가 되는 이슈에 관한 의견을 익명으로 퍼뜨릴 수 있다는 점에서 사람들의 관심을 끌고 있다. 이러한 서비스를 제공하는 시크릿이 2천 5백만(한화 255억4,500만 원) 달러의 투자를 유치했다고 지난 14일 테크크런치가 보도했다. 시크릿은 이번 해에만 3번의 투자를 유치했으며, 서비스를 시작한 작년의 초기 투자금까지 합치면 총 3,630만 달러(한화 371억 2,038만 원)의 자금을 마련했다. 시크릿은 투자 유치 소식과 함께 페이스북으로 로그인 하는 기능과 사용자가 특정…

아마존이 공식적으로 미국 현지 시각으로 지난 목요일에 미국연방항공국 (Federal Aviation Administration)에 무인비행기, 드론 테스트를 시애틀 상공에서 가능토록 허용해줄 것을 공식 요청했다. (*공식 서한 다운로드) . 아마존은 작년 12월 프라임 에어라는 드론을 활용한 배송 서비스 계획을 공식 발표한 후, 이번 제출된 서한을 통해 “현재는 8~9세대의 드론이 개발되어 시간당 80km 속도를 낼 수 있으며, 판매 제품의 86%인 2.3kg 이하로(5파운드) 의 무게를 배송할 수 있다”고 전했다. 그동안 아마존은 미국 연방 항공국(Federal Aviation Administration, FAA) 법으로 인해,…

Hearing about employees giving up their highly-prized, stable, and well-paid corporate careers in Korea’s tech behemoths used to be incredibly rare. But the young team at ASDTech has done exactly that, choosing to give up salaries of well over $100k for the excitement and promise of entrepreneurship. Having founded ASDTech in 2013 after leaving LG Electronics, they developed their while-label cloud service, ‘Cloudike’, and have now secured their first major clients. Furthermore they have…

The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC), Asia’s largest mobile industry conference which is hosted annually in Beijing, is making a foray into Japan with GMIC Tokyo on July 11, 2014. GMIC Tokyo will bring together industry experts as well as up-and-coming innovators at Hikarie Hall in Tokyo’s hip Shibuya district. The theme of GMIC Tokyo 2014 is “Globalization of Mobile”. The organizer Great Wall Club’s (GWC) inaugural GMIC in Japan, GMIC Tokyo promises to be the biggest…

The Korean startup ecosystem has been exploding over the last couple of years. As more interesting startups begin to emerge, so the support services to power their success also become more diverse and more mature. There are a number of key accelerator programs in Seoul now, that offer a range of services and finance for early stage Korean companies. Interestingly there is also now a distinct push towards helping Korean startups connect…

There are a number of good resources for finding information on Korean Technology, business and tech start- ups. Some are a bit more difficult to find, so here is a list of the most helpful news outlets and startup resources for Korea. beSUCCESS: If your reading this article than you no doubt know who beSUCCESS is and what we do. But just in case: beSUCCESS is a South Korean media platform about startups,…

페이스북이 70만명에 달하는 이용자들을 대상으로, ‘감정 조작 실험’을 진행했다는 사실을 시인했다.  페이스북의 최고운영책임자 쉐릴 샌드버그는 지난 2일, 미국 DNTV와의 인터뷰를 통해,  “감정 전이 현상 실험은 내부에서 진행하는  다양하고, 일상적인 제품 테스트의 하나일 뿐이다. 제대로 설명되지 못해(Poorly Communicated) 유감이다.”라고 밝히며, 페이스북의 개인정보와 프라이버시 정책의 중요성을 강조했다. 논란이 되었던 실험은 지난 2012년 1월,  일주일동안 영어를 사용하는 페이스북 회원들 70만명을 대상으로 실시되었다. 페이스북 데이터 과학자들이 실험 대상이 된 70만명의 이용자 뉴스피드에서 ‘긍정적’이거나, ‘부정적’인 감정을 담은…

As has been reported widely in Asia, South Korea is using the fact that Windows XP is no longer supported as a reason to walk away from Microsoft completely. While the rational for this stance makes sense; updating to new versions of the Microsoft software can be expensive and time-consuming, the government should also immediately discontinue its use of Hangul. Hangul is a Korean software package similar to MS Office that is used as the default (and…

Microsoft recently announced that it intends to fully enter the Korean internet search market later this year. This does not seem wise in a market that has been utterly dominated by Korean players for over a decade. Yahoo withdrew from the market after a fifteen year failed push into Korea. Google has fared a little better, having now climbed to around 10% – 15% market share, but it has been a long…

Junghee Ryu is a rare breed of Korean entrepreneur. Not only did he found a tech company that sold to Intel, but now he has decided to reinvest his returns into the Korean startup ecosystem and has opened his high-tech accelerator, FuturePlay, for business. Junghee founded Olaworks, an augmented reality technology company in 2006 and sold the company to Intel in 2012 for a reported $30M. Olaworks and a Silicon Valley-based tech company, both of which…

  Cyber Agent Ventures has been actively expanding its portfolio of startup investments across Asia and due to their physical networks and offices on the ground around Asia have emerged as a powerful force catalysing the growth of the Asia-wide startup ecosystem. Their annual flagship event will be returning home to Tokyo on August 8th, after touch-downs in South East Asia, Seoul and China. RISING EXPO is looking for startups who aspire…

Korean gaming giants, Gamevil and Com2us, which were in fierce competition for the last 15 years, are now actively seeking to create synergy in line with their M&A deal that we reported last year. Following Gameville’s acquisition of Com2us, the two firms have working towards release of their new combined platform HIVE, which is now live. After struggling against the huge success of KakaoTalk’s gaming platform (released in July 2012), the two companies…

Rakuten Ventures today announced the launch of a $100M global investment fund. This fund builds on the success of the Southeast Asia fund, which was launched in 2013 and counts Carousell, Visenze, Coda Payments and Send Anywhere among its investment portfolio. The investment in Send Anywhere is Rakuten’s first investment in a company outside South East Asia and their first in a South Korean startup, ESTMob. The new fund will target investments…

가정용 운동 기계 회사인 보우플렉스(Bowflex)가 운동 횟수를 기록하고 팔의 움직임을 추적하는 스마트 덤벨을 출시해 화제다. ‘스마트테크 560 덤벨(SmartTech 560 dumbbells)’은 블루투스를 통해 운동 기록을 안드로이드 혹은 iOS 앱으로 송출해 개인이 관리할 수 있도록 돕는다. 전용 앱을 통해서는 ‘마이피트니스팔(MyFitnessPal)’이 제공하는 다이어트 관련 동영상을 볼 수 있고, 6주의 트레이닝 목표를 세워 참여할 수도 있다. 이 스마트덤벨은 보우플렉스가 자랑하는 셀렉테크(SelectTech) 기술을 적용해, 수치를 입력하면 자동으로 덤벨의 무게를 더하고 뺄 수 있도록 구현되었다. 이 뿐만 아니라…

Seedstars World is an exclusive worldwide startup competition traveling to 30+ cities in 2014. On August 1st, the competition will be landing in Seoul to host a pitching event at D.Camp in collaboration with BeSuccess and the Swiss Embassy in South Korean. Seoul is a very special place for Seedstars World since it is the home of its 2013 grand winner: Flitto. 1 startup will be selected as “Seedstars Seoul Regional Winner”…