'K-Startup' Eyeing Opportunities in Overseas Markets

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The number of K-startups expanding their businesses beyond Korea to overseas markets based on their own competitiveness is increasing.

According to the startup industry on the 2nd, Musicow, a music copyright royalty participation claim investment platform, recently established a U.S. corporation and is actively targeting the local market. Musicow, with approximately 1.1 million accumulated members in Korea, is the world’s first startup to devise a business model called ‘music copyright royalty participation claim,’ opening the door for the general public to invest in the music copyright market for the first time. The U.S. is the world’s largest music market and has a strong music fandom market. Hanwha Systems participated as an initial investor and strategic partner in Musicow’s entry into the U.S. market. Hanwha Systems plans to support localization for Musicow’s successful overseas market expansion.

Danggeun Market has been rapidly expanding its footprint with a strategy to simultaneously target domestic and overseas markets. Since its first step in the UK under the name KARROT in November 2019, it currently provides services in over 440 regions across four countries including Canada, the U.S., and Japan. Following Canada last year, it established a local corporation in Japan in January this year to expand its business. In Toronto, Canada, the monthly active users (MAU) increased 20-fold within one year of launch, showing rapid growth. Based on GPS authentication and focusing on the keyword ‘neighborhood,’ Danggeun Market is gaining attention as a hyperlocal service in the global market.

There are also companies enhancing Korea’s status based on creative content. The global family entertainment company The Pinkfong Company was recently selected as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Companies in the World’ by the U.S. weekly news magazine TIME. Currently, The Pinkfong Company’s content is exported to 164 countries. Over 5,000 pieces of content have been produced in 20 languages including English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. To expand overseas business, it has also established local corporations. Following Los Angeles in the U.S., Shanghai in China, and Hong Kong, it recently set up a corporation in Singapore. The Singapore office is expected to serve as a base for expanding business in Southeast Asia. The Pinkfong Company plans to expand its business areas into YouTube, movies and animation, music, performances, and games based on the intellectual property (IP) power of Pinkfong and Baby Shark.

Video review startup Indent Corporation launched the global short-form video review commerce platform ‘Spray’ last April. This service was designed as a global platform targeting overseas markets from the start, allowing users worldwide to use it equally. Spray aims to be a global review commerce platform leading the next-generation commerce era. While existing commerce platforms connect suppliers (shopping malls) and consumers, Spray connects reviews of actual buyers (reviewers) who purchased items from shopping malls with potential consumers, generating additional video reviews within, linking them to product purchases. Through Spray, free connections with potential consumers worldwide beyond borders are possible. Spray currently supports services in all countries except Europe.

There is also a ‘K-Career’ platform targeting Southeast Asian MZ generation (Millennials + Gen Z) office workers. The IT industry career social networking service (SNS) ‘Careerly,’ operated by career tech startup Publy, is the protagonist. Careerly is an optimized career platform for MZ generation office workers in the IT industry, and recently ‘Careerly Vietnam’ was officially launched as an application. Careerly Vietnam, which started as a newsletter service in November 2020, attracted 30,000 subscribers even before the official app launch, receiving enthusiastic responses. It also secured about 60 curators consisting of experts from well-known local tech companies and unicorn companies. Careerly Vietnam is accelerating efforts to become an essential career platform for MZ generation workers in the Vietnamese IT industry. Careerly plans to expand to Indonesia, the second-largest unicorn in Southeast Asia.

Fashion commerce company Brandy confirmed its entry into Japan last October. It first started a web version beta service called ‘Brandy Japan’ locally and plans to expand to app services in the future. Recently, K-fashion preference among Japanese MZ generation and the increasing demand for shopping mall startups by Japanese influencers have been rising, and Brandy plans to actively target the Japanese market based on platform know-how built over five years. In Japan, sellers only need to handle styling and photography, while Brandy provides one-stop support for order confirmation, product procurement, merchandising, delivery, and customer service. Recently, the first offline pop-up store opened in Shibuya, Japan, was successfully concluded and attracted attention.