From Gaming Gear to Home Appliances... Abko to Enter KOSDAQ Within the Year

Increase in Gaming Gear Sales Due to COVID-19 Benefits
'PadBank' Recognized for Excellence After Selection in Government Pilot Project

Okwanggeun, CEO of ABKO, is giving an interview to Asia Economy at ABKO headquarters located in Magok, Gangseo, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Boryeong] "Our greatest strength is quickly reading trends."

Appco, a gaming gear specialist company, boasts a high market share in the domestic market. In particular, it overtook Logitech to become number one in the keyboard market. On the 29th, Appco CEO Oh Gwang-geun said in an interview with Asia Economy, "The secret to our success is reasonable prices and good quality."

Appco's flagship product is the optical switch keyboard K660 from the gaming gear brand 'Hacker.' It is easily seen in PC bangs nationwide. CEO Oh explained, "As the gaming industry grew, PC bangs increased, and we directly listened to the difficulties from the owners and developed the first optical switch keyboard that complements the shortcomings of existing mechanical keyboards. It has the advantage of working even if water gets in, so it has steadily gained popularity and became a cash cow."

This year, the company also benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic. As it became difficult to go outside, gamers started equipping gaming gear at home. CEO Oh emphasized, "There is a so-called 'hand feel' when gaming, and since people could not forget the sensation they felt in PC bangs, many started seeking our products. Our market share increased, and sales volume grew."

Last year, they launched the lifestyle appliance brand 'Oella.' They introduced several items such as a wireless vacuum cleaner for bathrooms, a massage gun to relieve muscle stiffness, and a dispenser that can hold hand sanitizer. Although the brand has been out for less than a year, there are already over 50 products on the market. They plan to increase this to about 80 products within this year. CEO Oh said, "We accurately capture the emotions consumers want and release products accordingly."

The audio device brand 'Vitonik' started with a headset, one of the gaming gear products, as a connecting point. They began this business because they were confident that based on audio, they could definitely lead changes in design trends. The product combining a turntable and Bluetooth speaker gained great popularity online, with the first batch selling out completely. The retro-sensibility Bluetooth speaker launched on Wadiz raised over 85 million KRW in funding just one day before the campaign ended.

'Padbank,' based on PC cases, was selected in all phases 1 to 5 of the government education project pilot programs, proving its capability. It has built a track record of supplying to about 2,400 elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide. Padbank is a charging cabinet that holds tablet PCs used as digital textbooks. CEO Oh said, "We started in 2014 looking at the future market, and after overcoming difficult times, we are now seeing the light. While conducting field surveys at schools, we developed a product capable of initialization and synchronization at once and even obtained a patent."

Appco aims to enter the KOSDAQ market within this year. Most of the public offering funds will be used to expand logistics systems and enter overseas markets. Currently, they sell products on Amazon in the U.S. and the U.K., and plan to expand to Amazon in Germany, France, and even India. They also intend to invest more funds in independent development for product differentiation. CEO Oh said, "I see listing as the second starting point. We will achieve quantum jump growth, not sloppy growth."