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!
