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.
