Ministry of SMEs and Startups Calls for Organizations to Conduct Online Brand Small Business Development Project

Private Platform Companies to Directly Select Promising Small Business Owners
'TOPS Program' Launches

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 30th that it is recruiting executing agencies for the online brand small business promotion project (TOPS program), where the private sector directly discovers and nurtures small business owners with high growth potential.

This project is being implemented for the first time this year as a follow-up measure to the comprehensive measures for small business owners and self-employed workers announced in July last year. The government and private sector (executing agencies) will invest resources in a 1:1 matching to support 3,000 small business owners annually.

The support will be carried out in three stages. In the first stage, 3,000 small business owners will be selected, and platform companies will provide direct 1:1 customized consulting. In the second stage, 300 small business owners selected from the first stage will be further chosen to receive promotional expenses such as advertising and logistics costs to activate sales and maximize revenue.

In the final third stage, 30 companies will be selected as ‘TOPS of the Year’ and support will be provided for small business owners to grow into small enterprises through special exhibitions and offline pop-up stores. In addition to government support, private platform companies as executing agencies plan to provide customized specialized programs autonomously composed for the selected small business owners.

The main qualification criteria for executing agencies are online intermediary transaction platforms with annual sales of 10 billion KRW or more or annual transaction amounts of 100 billion KRW or more, possessing their own programs and infrastructure, and proposing government support with 1:1 scale matching investment. The evaluation consists of three stages, including document and financial evaluations to prevent incidents such as business suspension of the executing agencies.

Hwang Young-ho, head of the Small Business Management Stability Support Group at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “Online entry is essential for the survival and growth of small business owners, and especially for their successful settlement online, it is urgently necessary to utilize the capabilities of private platforms that are most sensitive to consumer trends,” adding, “We will strive to make the online brand small business promotion project a representative case of government-private collaboration and a good stepping stone for small business owners to strengthen their brands and stories online and grow into small enterprises.”