Weekly VentureSquare Stories are summaries of some of the week’s top posts relating to the Korean startup and venture Industry.
TEDx KyungHee – Ideas for the Future
Here is a video of my presentation at this year’s TEDx Kyunghee. Since the audience was made up of university students I tried to explain things easily, but since the topic itself is somewhat difficult, I’m not sure whether I got my message across. Though I spoke about a topic I’ve been talking about all year, I summarized how N-screen is not simply “airplay” but rather realistic ways in which to use two screens. Also, I feel a lot of services currently trying to focus on smart TVs are not succeeding because they are just making things more complicated. Personally I think it would be smarter to try and find some way to integrate smartphone technology with “non-smart” TVs. I believe the future is not made by one person’s ideas alone. For something to become a reality, someone must come up with a wild idea and then there needs to be someone who can use their infrastructure to make it happen. What do you dream about?
Nexon is the producer of such popular games such as Maple Story, Dungeon and Fighter, and Kart Rider and has an impressive portfolio which is nearly 10 years old. They have 80,000,000 active monthly users, 80% of these users based in Korea, China and Japan. However, Nexon’s games do not use an open web platform, and games are downloaded via a specific client When compared to the social, mobile and ‘connected media’ gaming platforms today, the outlook is not so good. To improve on their success they will need to increase their cross-platform portfolio and build new profit models outside their current strategies. Zynga on the other hand have over 200,000,000 active monthly users over various social platforms, but still have a limited reach in Asia. You can view Zynga’s IPO presentation slides here.
Jeon Je-wan Returns with New Video Platform
Jeon Je-wan, who founded the well-known ‘Freechal’ community in 1999, has returned 12 years later with a new video communication service called “Jjang Live”. At a press conference in August, Jeon boldly promised to create a new mobile social-video platform and attract 200,000,000 users within two years. He went on to explain that Jjang Live would be different to text-based mobile platforms and would be a new type of social-networking service where users can exchange videos in real-time. Next month Jeon plans to start stepping into the global market, starting with Japan. You can currently download Jjang Live from the Android Market or the App Store.
VCNC’s ‘Between’ Keeps Intimate Relationships Private
When one walks the streets of Korea, it is hard not to notice the number of couples out on dates. For many the weekend is the only time couple’s get the chance to meet and hang out. Their app ‘Between’ helps bring couples that little bit closer together when they can’t be together. Between is an app designed specifically to be used between two cellphones, yours and your lovers – a private social network. Couples can chat, create photo albums and put any romantic messages into a special “memory box”.
We Interactive – Creating New Services and Inspiring Others
first and then developing a mobile app. The company even plans to merge with game companies to make services which are more entertaining. The CEO Hyun-Soo Lim’s was diagnosed with cerebral palsy six months after he
was born. Overcoming many hardships, he got into computing and was awarded more than twenty prizes in competitions. He inspires and encourages a lot of people to challenge themselves and do what they want
to do. His other dream is founding a venture capital business to support young
entrepreneurs and become a great mentor.
On the 3rd of December, VentureSquare’s 12th OpenUp event, “Beyond the Search”, was held at Daum communications in Hannam-dong. The event focused on the future of searching for content in the online world. VentureSquare will be posting all the presentations given on the day for those who could not make it to the event. Please click each title below to check out the presentations.
1. The future of Search, its new role
2. The New Paradigm – Mobile and Social Search