Weekly VentureSquare Stories are summaries of some of the week’s top posts relating to the Korean startup and venture Industry.
I’ve always wondered for a long time why Korea, a country with advanced cellphone technology, failed at making smartphones popular, no matter how many times they tried? And why did smartphones take off in the U.S where technology was slower and further behind Korea’s.
When living in Korea, text messages were cheap and popular making it the main form of communication between friends. Likewise, when I was in the U.S whenever I had something to say to a friend I would send them a text message until one day a friend came to me with a serious expression on their face. The friend asked me to send them e-mails instead of text messages because they weren’t on a text message plan which meant that there was a fee every time they received a message. In the U.S a fee is charged when one receives a phone call or text and if the user isn’t on a plan they have to pay around 30cents – meaning that receiving 10 texts would cost $3. I was quite surprised and it hadn’t even occurred to me that this was the case. It turned out that people were using e-mail like texts and thus preferred to use e-mail for short communications.
I wonder if this was one of the reasons that the ‘smartphone culture’ developed so fast in the U.S. If users had to pay to receive texts or phone calls and e-mail was used in this way, was it because users preferred e-mail?
Personally I think that another reason could have also been the keyboard. Unlike Korean which was so easy to input, there was no easy answer for English. Although other input methods were introduced to try and make the process easier, it was still bothersome for users to send text messages. Could this be the reason that Blackberrys with full keyboards and smartphones became popular so fast in the U.S?
Former Apple Employee Jay Elliot visits Korea
Former Apple right-hand man, Jay Elliot who worked together with Steve Jobs for 20 years was invited to the 2011 Techplus Conference in Seoul. Holding a press conference he answered questions about Apple, Steve Jobs and Korea’s IT industry.
How will Steve Job’s innovative legacy live on? What was the driving force behind his innovations?
Being Weary of YouTube
A while ago, a senior manager of a major broadcasting company gave a lecture about YouTube and how those in the industry need to be scared of the online video service. Last September “YouTube 3.0” was released. The site now offers ‘YouTube Live’, a 24 hour, 7 day a week, service providing live streams of various channels and programs from around the world. Google also recently took another shot at the television market by unveiling their new Google TV service. The company plans to make approximately 100 online channels to host original content. In 10 years what meaning will television networks have if YouTube has monopolized the Olympics or World Cup.
Bargaining Power and Stealing Technology
There are ventures which are B2B, delivering to corporations and those which are B2C, selling directly to the market. Tech ventures make up 70% of B2B companies. The core of the process for these companies is their bargaining power. This is the only weapon that ventures have available to them against corporations. It has been proven that one cannot depend on the kindness of larger companies with unique or new technology. Many companies claim that their technology is stolen by corporations. This is the main reason why ventures need to keep information about their technology confidential.
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[Weekly VentureSquare Stories] Comparing the Smartphone Boom
U.S vs. Korea – Comparing the Smartphone Boom
There is nobody who can match Steve Jobs’ innovativeness! Not just in the technology field but out of anyone I know there is no innovator with the same incredible vision, passion and knowledge that Steve had. If Steve Jobs had a product, the person using the product was the most important thing. It kind of makes me think that the users were the driving force behind Steve’s innovation. CEO’s need to think about who is using their product first and foremost. They need to work hard like Jobs did to provide the best experience for the end-user. After Job’s passing, people brought presents and cards to the Apple stores. One said, “Thank you for making me this product which I can now use for the rest of my life.” What other CEO would get messages like that?
Samsung’s sales for the previous quarter were more than Apple’s. Apple’s sales are lower than expected, what effect will this have on both companies in the end?
How much you’ve sold doesn’t have any big meaning. Numbers are just numbers and are not important. Looking at the value of smartphone sales, I think that Apple is 3-4 times ahead. I myself tend to focus on the value of things. Even just looking at sales value of the iPhone4S, it is higher than Samsung. There is no other company that has attained as much economic value as Apple. Apple don’t just have the iPhone but they also have the App Store too. It was created four years ago and is now valued at 450 billion won. Apple do not only develop the iPhone but also develop 30% of all the apps which are sold. Samsung’s phone sales were larger in the third quarter but you need to look at the actual phone sales and benefits. Apple surpasses Samsung. If the revenue of iTunes and the App Store were also added in to the calculation it would be even more. Also, people say that Android is outselling Apple but Android is software and not hardware, so the comparison itself isn’t right.