So asks Jasper Kim in the WSJ:
The U.S. has Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Japan has Masayoshi Son of Softbank. China has Jack Ma of Alibaba. South Korea has . . . who, exactly?
Steve Jobs has gone on to push his Apples in another world, but the once popular question on the peninsula of “who will be Korea’s Jobs” is actually the wrong question to ask, says Kim.
The better question is who is South Korea’s Accell or Graylock —the venture capital firms that take chances on start-ups.
South Korea falls short with an answer:
…venture capital is in woefully short supply in Korea. While VC boomed in the late 1990s—with 29,000 investors putting up 549.3 billion won in 2000 ($485 million at today’s exchange rate)—that number had fallen to a mere 32.6 billion won by 2010, representing a mere 3% of total capital invested in South Korea that year.
Kim blames it partly on culture, saying Americans are bigger risk-takers and more willing to invest in the unknown.
He also cites poor policy:
Korean law requires local VC funds to be formed as stock corporations, as opposed to the partnership structure more common in the U.S. This foists on venture-capital firms a short-term focus on quarterly results that’s at odds with the kind of patience more characteristic of successful Western funds.
Aside of the questionable premise about Koreans not being risk-takers, and no mention of Chaebol’s monopolizing capital and talent, it’s worth a read, if for nothing else than Kim tying up the story by calling Korea a “venture-capital vortex.” (For some reason I enjoy repeating that aloud like Elmer Fudd)
In other K-biz news, the KT says today that Smoothie King is set to take on Starbucks.
CEO Kim Sung-wan:
“The new smoothies lineup will help promote the supremacy of Korean farm products, particularly Korean ginseng.”
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
As wired together as South Korea is, surely there are a lot of smart techies there, and not just in the coding room? Maybe they are doing more imitating than innovating, but they seem to be doing a darned good job of that.
As for the ginseng smoothie, that sounds intriguing. I was unexpectedly seduced by red bean popsicles when I was there, so I might have to try this.
Big fan of ginseng. Haven’t come around to the red beans yet.
The ginseng smoothie has been around. It still makes my head scratch on Smoothie King buying out its Korean franchise from its American home company to–prove Korean produce superiority? Is that some type of wargame I wasn’t aware of? If Korea is ambling for farm produce superiority, can we do something about getting more variety and quality than the bland mealy beefsteak tomatoes, fungus-ridden onions, oversized strawberries that taste like lightly strawberry-scented water, starchy livestock corn, one-note chiles (please bring in poblanos and habaneros), and overpriced-but-no-living-up-to-the-pucuniary-hype fruit?
I’m into the red beans and the ginseng, though.
“If Korea is ambling for farm produce superiority, can we do something about getting more variety and quality than the bland mealy beefsteak tomatoes, fungus-ridden onions, oversized strawberries that taste like lightly strawberry-scented water, starchy livestock corn, one-note chiles (please bring in poblanos and habaneros), and overpriced-but-no-living-up-to-the-pucuniary-hype fruit?”
Ditto. Gimme some mangoes, papayas, figs, passion fruits, dragon fruits, beetroots, at reasonable prices, and then we can affirm Korean superiority on farm produce.
This is a VERY BIG problem here. It affects business in every sector. The only way certain things happen is by “connection” and that means a lot of bad deals get funded while better ideas languish.
This turns out to be one of my biggest complints since if someone goes to a chaebol for funding, the terms are not good at all.
안철수 and 이찬진 were once both techno visionaries who were rightly lauded as heroes, but they stopped innovating and then of course in Korea all roads to success ultimately require dabbing in a bit of politics.
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