Kospo: Are There Truly Global Unicorns in South Korea?

ZDNet Korea reports that Melon, South Korea's first music streaming service, launched four years before Spotify but currently has only about 6.2 million monthly active users, 122 times less than Spotify's 761 million. KakaoTalk, which started just seven months after WhatsApp, has only 5 million overseas users compared to WhatsApp's 3 billion global users. Choi Ji-yeong of Kospo (Chairman Kim Jae-won) stated at a policy forum titled 'K-Startup to the World' that while South Korea has launched services earlier than other countries, its domestic-focused platform industry lacks global growth. He emphasized the need for a 'virtuous cycle' of corporate global expansion and regulatory global awareness. Choi proposed three key recommendations: making global coherence the first principle of regulatory design, creating open systems for global capital and talent, and expanding public innovation procurement as the first customer for new technologies. The forum featured lawmakers, officials, and industry leaders, with Kim Kwan-jae highlighting the importance of connecting South Korean startups to global markets through a 'startup embassy' akin to Silicon Valley and Wall Street.