NCSoft to Withdraw from National Assembly Audit as Witness

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] NCSoft will be excluded from the list of witnesses at the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Communication Committee's audit on the 8th.

On the 5th, Han Junho, a member of the ruling Democratic Party belonging to the Science and ICT Committee, stated, "As an individual content provider, it is somewhat difficult to directly point out issues in the mobile app market such as Google's 30% commission fee and forced in-app payments, so we have decided to finally withdraw the request for NCSoft's attendance as a witness."

Previously, Jung Jinsoo, Senior Vice President of NCSoft, was selected as a witness for the Korea Communications Commission's audit. NCSoft requested Han's office to withdraw the attendance request, and Han's office accepted it after considering various circumstances.

Han said, "I wanted NCSoft, which started as a startup and grew into the top gaming company, to appear as a witness to discuss the difficulties they have faced and the problems arising during the mobile restructuring of the gaming market together with the government and the National Assembly," adding, "Even NCSoft, whose majority of users are domestic, has no choice but to be cautious of Google in the current market environment."

Han emphasized, "If Google raises its commission to 30% and enforces in-app payments, domestic venture startups will not be able to survive and will eventually be eliminated from the global market," and added, "Lower commissions and expanded payment methods bring many positive effects such as lower user charges, various benefits, reinvestment in content by companies, stable management, and expansion of the mobile financial market."

He continued, "NCSoft's absence this time reconfirms Google's market dominance," and said, "We need to create an environment where the domestic IT, venture, and startup markets are guaranteed equal access to content and can develop competitiveness."