New era of globalization for Korean TMT sector

The high quality of services does not necessarily guarantee the success of globalization as we can see in the case of Korean TMT services. In fact, Korean TMT service sector failed to prove their competitiveness in the global market. For Example, DMB, IPTV, and SNS from Korea certainly had competitive edges over its counterparts in the global market but failed to go abroad and were left in the local market without achieving enough economies of scale.

As discussed in this edition of the newsletter, there are many complicated reasons for the failure. However, there are some new efforts for globalization of Korean TMT services. According to the new policy by Ministry of Knowledge Economy, they selected 13 items and divided them into three categories: 3 strategic items (DMB, WiBro, E-Government), 3 flagship items (Semiconductor, Display, Wireless) and 7 potential items (RFID/USN, Robot, Network, Software, E-Health, LED, Security) and support them to penetrate in the global market.

However, this kind of initiative is not whole new this time. The point is globalization is not something that government can do from A to Z. Equivalent efforts from the private sector are also necessary. For instance, each TMT players should grow their global business competences and we need specialist global business catalysts from the private sector too.

Personally, I am so excited this week because I am going to serve one of my clients from overseas. They come to Korea to transfer one of Korea’s innovative mobile services to their country and further. Considering one of my missions is connecting Korean TMT to the global market, I really hope to see the success in this deal.

The combination of government drive and private efforts like mine will help Korean TMT services sector target the global market rightly this year. Any enquiries on innovative ‘Made in Korea’ services are always welcomed.


Yours Yunho Chung
Managing Partner, Veyond Partners