1516T2g1 South Korea/Reflection
| Day 2 |
Contents
Day 1: Reflections
Kozaza
Kozaza facilitates an economy by the people through sharing underutilized resources – the home. SanKu Jo, the CEO of Kozaza believes strongly in the suitability of home sharing in Korea due to the unique Korean experience one will get. His strategy is to target the younger generation by making presence in popular dramas and through celebrities and influencers. This I believe is a good starting point in providing a way for millennials around the world to visit Korea and receive traffic for Kozaza’s inbound revenue. In Korea, countless of home sharing businesses have failed. Kozaza beaten the odds and remain the leading player because of SanKu Jo’s hope for a better experience in Korea and his strong will and competence in managing its operations.
SanKu Jo seems to be the person with big actions. He copies carefully what AirBnB is doing and is able to see the unique experience people want through Korea home sharing, and execute it without a doubt.
Weenu
Weenu focuses on everything art with a social cause. They strongly believe in using art to promote social issues through FESTA – a festival where artists meet with the public and share social issues. Weenu Provides education programmes as a revenue stream for artists, and promotes artists online through collaboration with NAVER Corp. Weenu’s strategy is to get big players (i.e. NAVER Corp) and sponsorships to promote the artists’ crafts in return for advertising.
What hit me was Miho Heo’s passion in social causes. In Korea, female workers do not get paternity leave but Weenu has it. Miho Heo’s decision to provide this welfare empowers her employees and hopefully make a statement to the SK government.
Seoul Google Campus
The Seoul Google Campus focuses on incubating and mentoring startups with great ideas, turning their ideas into fruition and anticipating the day they move out from the co-working space. This belief excites the event planners and mentors which I thought is core in forming their motivation to host the startups and the hundreds of events held there.
1. Kozaza
The Jack Ma quote "If we fight in the ocean, we lose—but if we fight in the river, we win.” made an impression on me because it is about finding the niche market to target, and it was a challenge to scope the target market for my IS480 project. Indeed, targeting a niche market is a way to survive, but from the sharing by CEO Mr. SanJu Ko, I'm not sure targeting a niche market is enough, as the value proposition as a niche-targeting may not be sufficient for consumers to use Kozaza rather than bigger market places like AirBnB. That brings me to the second takeaway - Kozaza differentiate by providing a service personnel to bridge the communication between travellers and homeowners who do not understand English (and these non-English speakers elderly would be the ones owning the authentic hanock homes). I think that the localized service personnel is the competitive advantage much stronger than his fee-free model, since trust, also emphasized by him, is the most important factor when it comes to travel lodging.
2. Weenu
Weenu's tagline "99% of art and 99% of people" made the biggest impression on me. I later found out from the Project Manager that it means making all other art accesible to all other people, making art more equitable. The founder's energy, charisma, and enthusiasm is probably the key to success of weenu. weenu probably have a difficult time hiring talents as mentioned by the Kozaza CEO when he explained the difference between Silicon Valley & South Korea, and the status as a social enterprise makes it harder to hire talents with the prospect of making more money. However, weenu may have hired the right people with the right mindset BECAUSE of the social enterprise label. It is heartening to hear that they have managed to achieve tripling of growth in sales over the past few years after not making a profit for ~5 years.
3. Google Campus @ Seoul
Google Campus @ Seoul was a little underwhelming, I have envisioned a large complex where the whole building is occupied by Google employees, but, I enjoyed learning about the cmapus, especially on the Device Testing Lab - where startup companies can make use of the many devices in the Lab to do their app testing, it will be wonderful if SMU SIS has the same thing. I wasn't able to ask this question - but what is it in for Google to spend so much money to maintain the entrepreneurship community in Seoul? I believe it is to be in the centre of innovation in this part of Asia so that they can leverage on the connections and perhaps buyout promising startups. It is encoruage to know that space is running out at the campus, it tells that Seoul entreprenuership circle is indeed growing.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Key Learning Points for Day 1 of Company Visits
- Reflection goes a long way to learning what I've experienced - By reflecting on the events and guest lectures, I understand the lessons learnt much better.
- Listening - Like what I've said in my profile, listening is key to absorbing experience like a sponge. Quick and really easy if you concentrate. Coffee by Weenu helped alot too.
Learning Points from Kozaza
- Understanding the demographic is key to put the product forward and market it – Kozaza fights in a market where Airbnb has international market power while there were many players in Korea who tried homesharing on a global scale and failed. Last year's TSM went to a similar company and that company scaled down its operations. Kozaza targets (1) Korea (2) homesharing while other companies were too ambitious by either targeting a too large a segment (Asia / Worldwide) or promising too much (hotels + homestay). Kozaza goes a step further to target short term (hanokstay), long term (seoulstay) and high valued (finestay).
- Senior talent leading a company provides foresight - With experience comes a less chance of failure. The founder, SanKu Jo, mentioned his experience is big conglomerates and banks, backed by academia as a PHD holder.
- Trust is important to leveraging the Sharing Economy - Connected resources rely on being open and safe, and having trust in the provider is a key tenet to operations.
Learning Points from Weenu
- Artists in Korea are undervalued for their creations and efforts - Weenu has two objectives in helping these artists as part of their social cause (1) Increase accessibility to art and (2) give the artists better opportunities to increase their earnings
- Persevere - Weenu suffered 5 years of losses before turning a profit recently in 2013. They fought hard to double this amount in 2014.
- Diversify the engagement platforms - Intimate spaces (FESTA), continual engagement (Art education) and 24/7 availability (online) enabled the omnipresence of Weenu
- Remember to help the people helping Weenu - the same idea as in an emergency, putting on your oxygen mask on a plane for yourself before assisting your daughter or son, it is important to keep the people running Weenu contented. Weenu understands the culture (of Korea) it operates in. This is exemplified by allowing their female employees leave before their 5pm curfew and allowing all staffs to have proper holiday-rest. Employees are people too. No woman should work like men especially if they are childbearing, and no man should work without rest. Treat people well and they will be nice to you back.
Learning Points from Google Campus
- Incubators & Accelerators are present in the community, entrepreneurs need to have good, viable ideas and know where to look for help
- Entrepreneurship comes with great rewards (a "graduated" team from Google Campus Seoul achieved 70million in funding) but great risks too
- Being connected to other entrepreneurs spurs innovation and these other players could one day be a key resource or a working business relationship (like in the case of the lighting & special effects company was connected to a startup just by a simple billboard in the Campus, and the relationship lasted more than 5 years)
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
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1. Kozaza
A startup that focuses on providing Hanok stay exclusively to the Korean domestic market. The founder is confident that he can become the local leader like Kakaotalk. He quoted Jack Ma "If we fight in the ocean, we lose—but if we fight in the river, we win.” However, I feel that they should expand their market to the world instead of just targeting the locals because I believe that most of the people who wants an experience staying in Hanok would not just be the locals, but especially the foreigners because it's a novel idea to them. They should try to market it by engaging Kpop stars who live in the city. The Kpop stars would be given the opportunity to stay in the Hanok for a day or two and Kozaza would video down their experience staying in it. This would definitely help to boost the attractiveness of staying in a Hanok.
2. Weenu
Weenu is a social enterprise that provides a platform for potential artists to sell or showcase their art pieces via different channels (Festa, Edu or Online). I think what they're doing is really meaningful and creates a good impact in the society. However, I feel that they should provide a platform for college students as well. When I questioned how did Weenu help to improve the artists' lives, I was answered that the artists would tend to want to partner up with Weenu to sell their art pieces. However, that's not Weenu's initial intention. So, this problem would have backfired their initial plan which is just to provide a platform for them to sell their pieces. However, since what they're doing is making a good social impact and also helping girls to leave before the 5pm curfew (breaking the traditional workforce stigma), I think this is a good cause.
3. Google Campus @ Seoul
I think it is a really fun and innovative idea to have an open workspace for everyone. However, I feel that some restrictions should be imposed on the membership to prevent overcrowding on a limited creative space where people share ideas. I liked that they're so flexible with their work schedule and behavior because it is very different from the traditional Korean working culture where everything is so strict and you've to know the unwritten rules. I also really liked the fact that they encourage diversity which is something I strongly believe in. I believe that everyone should have an equal chance of showcasing their talent to the world despite starting with an unequal playing field.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel libero ut nunc iaculis aliquam id nec felis. Nulla cursus tristique sapien, in mattis diam euismod id. Sed non finibus tellus. Mauris lorem arcu, porta in rutrum sed, fringilla a quam. Vivamus scelerisque urna ac sem fringilla ornare. Morbi et ipsum nisi. Vestibulum viverra congue orci, vel imperdiet neque interdum et. Vestibulum ante neque, cursus vitae est in, maximus finibus mauris. Curabitur non libero a magna hendrerit porttitor. Donec dignissim id arcu et venenatis. Nullam ac ligula a lorem blandit consequat. Morbi non ligula non urna sagittis aliquet. Vivamus in erat massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
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