1314T2g1 South Korea/Participant Information/Lee Xiang Rui/DuringTrip
Annyeong Haseyo, 안녕하세요! We have safely landed in Korea, the land of Kimchi! Today was a crazy and hectic day! We visited Twinword and Lasso at Smart Content Centre in the morning and later KBS in the afternoon. I will have to say, it is definitely a very interesting and eye-opening experience for me.
Twinword
CEO Kim is very nice to share about his start-up, Twinword, which is incubated by the Smart Content Centre. Twinword focuses on collecting how people associate concepts in mind offering education, game, and search experience. It is a very interesting concept and can be used in many scenario. Twinword generates revenue by providing API services, profit sharing model and lastly providing their very own services. What had left me the deepest impression is the assistance given by the Korea government. The Korea government has given Twinword USD $300,000 worth of seed funding, unconditionally. No equity is taken. I repeat, NO EQUITY IS TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT. This is something that is not seen in Singapore. I am amazed by the unwavering support given by the Korea government to these new start-ups. It might be because SMEs are difficult to make a mark in Korea as the market is controlled by local giants like Samsung and LG.
Smart Content Centre SCC
Located in the Seoul suburb of Anyang, the Smart Content Center (SCC) is a government backed startup incubator and business development agency. The SCC incubate many of the finest start-ups in the Korea's start-up scene. When i stepped into SCC, I am dumbfounded by the facilities and the equipments provided. It is very comprehensive and everything is provided at no cost. There are 3D-printers, simulators and many cutting edges equipments. In additional, the offices are well-furnished with breath-taking view. How i wish my office looks something like this! The koreans are really lucky to receive such support from their government.
Look at the number of testing devices available!! *jealous*
Awesome view from Lasso's Office!
Lasso
My favourite company of the day! It has a very interesting business model that is only applicable to the Korea's market. The founder of Lasso shared with us that smartphone prices in Korea fluctuate everyday. Unlike in Singapore, mobile phone prices are fixed and rarely changes. He also highlighted that Korea's mobile market is made up of 90% Android, a phenomenal that is peculiar to Korea due to local giants like Samsung and LG. The founder of Lasso identified this pain point and try to close this gap in the market by developing Lasso. Lasso is an application that helps users to monitor specific smartphone's prices and fires notifications when the price reached a desired amount set by the user. Very, very interesting concept! Don't you think so too?
The founder of Lasso sharing with us about his goal and vision!
The Youtiao are very jealous of the facilities!
Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)
In the afternoon, we visited Korea's television network - KBS! We are very fortunate to be able to tour KBS as it usually not available for public! We managed to have a quick tour around KBS thanks to Michelle's contact with the PR department!! Woots! The tour was very informative and we even managed to meet some celebrities!
Playing with Jieting in the Props Room!
News Anchor in action!
After KBS, we returned back to hotel and it is SHOPPING TIME! Time to shop till I drop dead! But on the whole, it was a fun-filled day! I am looking forward to the companies we are visiting tomorrow! Rest well everyone and sleep tight!
It's Day 2 of TSM! Day 2 of TSM begins by visiting CEO Ian's startup - IdeaAbove! It is Labour's Day today and this explain why we are only visiting 1 company!
IdeaAbove - Listr.FM
Listr.FM is an application that helps to make music recommendations easy and effortless. People are always finding the best and easiest way to share music for their important moments. In addition, friends can collaborate to create great playlists for any occasions. This is where Listr.FM comes in and fill the market gap.
This morning, Ian did a splendid analysis on the music industry and shared with us the difficulties he has faced while developing Listr.FM. I can tell from Ian's eyes that he is very passionate about Listr.FM. He has absolute believe and faith with his idea and the team behind it. This is something that is very important to becoming a successful entrepreneur. You MUST believe in your own ideas and have trust with your teammates. Ian shared that he has worked 3 entire years on Listr.FM before launching it officially. During this entire phrase of development, Listr.FM is not profit generating and faced many challenges. 3 years is not a very short amount of time. I believed if I were in his shoes, I might possibly give up halfway through.
Even though Ian has shared a lot about his vision and future plan for Listr.FM, I still have some burning questions that remains unanswered. Why did he choose to launch iOS instead of Android when 90% of Koreans are using Android? How he is going to make people switch from established music streaming applications like Spotify and KKBOX? Why did it take him 3 years to develop Listr.FM? And most importantly, when will he start to monetize Listr.FM?
Questions aside, here are some pictures at Ian's office!
Ian sharing about Listr.FM and his very own start-up journey!
Very nice incubator! I am MAD JEALOUS, AGAIN.
Lunch
Today's Lunch is at a humble BBQ restaurant. Everything is great, except that we smell a little... BUT I LOVE THE PORK! :D YUMS!
Look at all the hungry monsters! Nom nom nom~
Everyone loves BBQ! Simple irresistible!
Ewha Womans University
After a hearty and satisfying lunch, it is free-and-easy time! We dropped off at the shopping district near Ewha Womans University and wandered around for an hour looking for cheap loots. After that, we headed to Ewha Womans University to take a quick tour around the famous all-female-students university in Korea. The school is very, very, very, very, very beautiful! I did not say this because there are many pretty girls there. The school is really picturesque... I will like the photos do the talking this time round!
We are at the legendary Ewha Womans University! Every male students' dream school!!!
A small garden near the entrance of the university! Breathtaking!!!
Another beautiful garden at another corner of the university! All the flowers are blooming!
Ewha even has its own church!
Selfie Time! I really love the greenery in the school!
Yellow ribbons are seen everywhere in Ewha.. I believed these ribbons represent the blessings from the students to the victims and their families in the recent Korea's sinking ferry incident.
Eating Live Octopus
The highlight of the day goes to eating live octopus! The very brave Lee Jin, Clarissa, Glenn and Jeremy wanted to have a taste of live octopus! I applaud them for their bravery and courage! *clap clap* Like what Prof Ben says, maybe we should consider making "Eating Live Octopus" a prerequisite to Korea's TSM! Hahahaha!
Look at the wiggly tentacles! Eeeewwwwww! They are really alive!
JUMP!
The night concluded in laughters as we caught Korea's famous comic martial arts show, JUMP! An innovative fusion of martial arts and comedy, JUMP revolves around an anything but typical Korean family. From the comically authoritative grandfather and the TaeKwondo-chopping mother to the lovely yet deadly daughter and two fumbling burglars.. this is martial arts mayhem! Great combination of theatre, dance, and martial arts. I enjoyed in particular the audience interaction! We should have sabotaged Agurz :( Anyway, this show was totally understandable by non-Korean speakers as there was very little dialogue. I would strongly recommend my friends to catch it when they come Korea the next time!
JUMP! An awesome comic martial arts show! I enjoyed every single bit of it!
So, this is the end of Day 2! Time to catch some beauty sleep as we have a loooooooooong day tomorrow! Signing off!~
Welcome to Day 3 of TSM! Today is a long day as we visited 3 start-ups at Gangnam, the Southern part of Seoul. This 3 start-ups are all very promising and have a certain level of traction already. We started the day by visiting VCNC in the morning.
VCNC
We are very fortunate to be hosted by Mr Edward Lee, one of the co-founder of VCNC. Their company is the brains behind Between, a private social network designed for couples. It is growing very rapidly, with more than 7.2 million users worldwide. I can see how Between is a huge hit for couples as it addresses the privacy concerns that many social networks fail to do so. It provides a close and intimate space for couple to share memories of their own. Mr Edward Lee gave us a very detailed explanation on Between's vision and future expansion plan. He also emphasized the need to build a good foundation instead of rolling out new functions. I strongly agree with his point of view because the functions in the application must be useful so that users would see a need to come back. Also, I am very impressed by Between's monetization plan. Every move they made seems to be well-planned. They are currently generating profits through 3 channels - stickers, advertisements and mobile commerce. I have also snapped some photos of their cosy office!
Edward sharing more about Between!
Between's very own mascot characters! Super kawaii!
Values of VCNC! Staff are expected to abide to this values
MemeBox
In Korea, people are so crazy over beauty and comestic products. From BB Cream to Face Mask, you name it, they have it! Hence, it is no surprise that Koreans are willingly to spend money to purchase beauty boxes such as MemeBox. Memebox is the Korean makeup and skincare start-up that periodically releases exciting mystery boxes Despite strong competition from other similar startups such as GlamourBox and VanityTrove, Memebox differentiates from their competitors by providing numerous full-size samples. The management of Memebox also shared us their secret to success. They adopted a very well-known marketing concept called "Law of the Few". Malcolm Gladwell first introduced this concept in his book, the Tipping Point. What it means is that viral marketing campaigns heavily dependent on the involvement of a few people. These people typically have strong social presence and can reach out easily to many. Memebox adopted this principle and targeted established bloggers and youtubers. The company sent free MemeBoxes to these influential people and hope they would write a good review and recommend to their followers in return. I have tried such marketing approach on my very own startup and the result is rather positive. This explained why Memebox is doing way better than its competitors and got incubated by the world's most famous incubator program - the Y Combinator.
Say hello to MemeBox! The pink box contains many sample of new comestic and beauty products!
The management of Memebox explaining to us the different beauty products that come in the box
The current korean version of Memebox's website. The global version has a very different look and feel as compared to the Korea's version.
Flitto
The last company we visit today is Flitto, currently incubated at Maru180. Flitto is a Korean startup that uses crowdsourcing to destroy Google Translate. Many people all around the word use flitto to find translations for their favorite celebrities. It is basically a human-powered social translation services. The CEO of Flitto, Mr Simon, is very charismatic and humorous speaker. He shared with us the different challenges he faced when he started Flitto. I am very impressed by how much Flitto had grown over the years with $0 marketing dollars spent. I repeat, $0 spent on marketing or whatnot. I guess what make Flitto so successful is the gamification features that create a stickiness factor that make users return to the app. Without returning users, crowdsourced translation services will definitely fail. It is a good move by Mr Simon to incorporate gamification features right from the start of Flitto.
Welcome to Maru180, another very beautiful incubator. *MAD JEALOUS x3*
Before we visit Flitto, we had a short tour around Maru180!
Maru180 has a very nice cafe! Perfect place to brainstorm and bounce ideas!
Mr Simon, CEO of Flitto, sharing with us his plan for Flitto!
So that's all for Day 3! As for now, it is time to shop again! And we shall have some beer and chicken for supper later! Signing off~
Today is our first free and easy day! The TSM family have decided to visit Everland, South Korea's largest theme park. It is my 2nd time to Everland but I am still very hyped for all the rides there! In particular, the T-Express! T Express is a wooden roller coaster and it is the biggest attraction in Everland. It is world's second steepest wooden coaster in the world! T Express was ranked as the one of the world's best wooden coaster.
The journey to Everland is not an easy one. The bus journey is tiring, long and very bumpy. The driver is a speed demon, accelerating and braking as and when he like. But thank god we still got to Everland in one piece. Joke aside, I really want to thank everyone who made this trip to Everland possible. In particular, Janan, my awesome roommate. He is the tour guide of the day and made alot of preparation work to ensure the trip to Everland is a smooth one. And once again, it is photo time!
YAY! We finally reached Everland! In one piece (thank god!)
Another shot at the entrance of Everland! Look at our excited faces!
The legendary T-Express! My favourite ride in Everland!
Lunch at Everland! The grilled chicken is good and very tender!
Snacking everywhere we go in Everland!
It has been a long day! Gonna shower and crash right away! Signing off!~
Hongdae
Another free and easy day and it looks like everyone have their own travelling plan today! Today, the gang of four (Me, Rafael, Glenn and Prof Ben) wen to Hongdae to recee for male clothings! The clothing there are really not bad at all! Bought myself a nice multi-purpose bag! Can use as a backpack, hand carry or sling bag! Cool right! And we had lunch at a small traditional restaurant in a quiet corner of Hongdae. It is packed with locals and the food is really authentic! It is definitely a gem hidden in the crowded street of hongdae!
Welcome to Hongdae! So much things to buy and eat!
Awesome cutlass fish soup! Much Refreshing after many days of deep-fried food
