South Korea: A country with one foot in the past and one in the future
Scroll
Image courtesy of Dickie Currer
Article Summary
- South Korea’s tech-savvy culture contrasts with an insular digital ecosystem that can be challenging for outsiders to navigate.
- Local dominance of apps like KakaoTalk and Naver Map highlights barriers to international accessibility and scalability.
- New government initiatives aim to globalise South Korea’s startup scene and attract foreign entrepreneurs.
by Dickie Currer
When most people think of South Korea, a futuristic utopia is often the initial perception in their mind. Robot waiters serving up a bowl of steaming Bibimbap, a recycling culture that leads to some of the cleanest streets across the globe and an automation obsessed population that has its collective finger on the pulse of emerging technologies.
Like neighbouring Japan, this East Asian nation has a reputation for embracing innovation to enhance the wellbeing and lifestyle of its socially conscious citizens.
Though South Korea, like Japan, is not always the most convenient place for those who don’t speak the native language or have access to the same local knowledge.
I found this to be the case in South Korea’s startup ecosystem following a recent two week visit.
In a world which is battling with how to deal with globalisation and mass migration/immigration, South Korea is somewhat of a conundrum. It seems to me to be a country with one foot in the future and one in the past.
Image courtesy of Dickie Currer
What is often at odds with the preconceived notions of the country that most foreigners have, is that Korea and its people are actually very traditionalist and conservative. With an extremely rich cultural heritage.
And while the people I encountered were extremely welcoming and famously hospitable, they can be quite introverted by nature and the country itself quite insular be design.
I first encountered this when trying to set up meetings prior to my arrival in the country. A Korean colleague that was happy to make some introductions told me that there was no point connecting me via Whatsapp, email or LinkedIn as Korean’s don’t use it and that I should download a local instant messaging app called KakaoTalk.
Which sounds simple enough, apart from the fact that you need a Korean number to use it!
The statistics around it’s user base also highlight the local hegemony that exists with the Technology.
KakaoTalk which launched in 2010 is a super-app in Korea, with over 53 million monthly active users, 47 million inside Korea. Which for context has a population of 51 million, meaning the app is used by 93% of smartphone owners in South Korea.
The monopoly of the market it has is staggering, and one that most Startups would dream of, though it’s lack of global application is a prime example of my point. It’s a Korean app that’s ultimately limited to be used by Koreans only.
A similar problem exists in the real-time GPS navigation space. With Koreans preferring to use local app Naver Map over Googel Maps. Naver’s search algorithm is built around the Korean language, which helps it’s search engine to deliver more relevant results than
Google on many occasions. Though provides a ton of problems if you’re not used to using Korean Characters, which I suspect many foreigners aren’t. This led to me frequently using a mash up of the two, badly, which felt very far from the hi-tech vision of navigating the country I had expected.
Image courtesy of Dickie Currer
Talk to any of the Expat Community in Korea and they’ll tell you about the difficulty they all face in opening a bank account or in using webforms online, with many Korean websites only accepting Korean characters having space for only 3 letters for a surname (which is common in the country e.g Kim, Won etc ).
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Korean Government that are trying to help the Korean Tech scene become more accessible and to help Korean companies to internationalise their offerings so they can scale outside of the country.
There’s also a huge commitment to bringing more non-Korean ideas into the country. A Global Startup Center in the high end district of Gangnam, was launched in July 2024, focussed on providing international entrepreneurs a space to work, collaborate and even a course which helps with fast tracking entrepreneurial visas.
With the purpose of having Startups from outside of the country solve some of the hyper local problems detailed above.
With the advent of technology making the world a smaller place, South Korea, which already boasts the 13th largest economy worldwide, has some work to do to make sure it’s Innovation ecosystem doesn’t culturally cut itself adrift from the rest of the world.
We’re already starting to see Korean culture, from K-Pop to K-Drama, emerge as global leaders in popular culture, I for one hope to see the same apply for Korean Innovation in the near future.
