Creative Economy Model
SK supports the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Daejeon, which opened last Oct. The center has already made sales while attracting both domestic and overseas investments, and also the creation of jobs.
An official from the SK Group said that the center is successfully meeting the goal that it set for six months after its establishment.
The SK Group formed a task force to support the “Creative Economy” policy of the government, which is directly led by Jang Dong-hyun, president of SK Telecom.
In the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation of Daejeon, SK supports potential ventures via one-stop services, helping to launch businesses by providing mentoring, psychological counseling, and legal consultations for free. As a result, five ventures have attracted investments of 1.26 billion won (US$1.13 million), and three ventures made sales of 694 million won (US$62,011) by Jan. 17.
As a result, ventures could develop their businesses with the help of the center. For example, Hwang Min-young established his company, MJV, which provides automatic video production solutions. MJV has attracted a number of investment suggestions at Silicon Valley.
The SK Group has also supported three ventures to enter the American market, employing the group’s overseas partners. Moreover, the Group provides an online platform that connects technologies and sources of demand in order to support technology businesses the group said.
SK itself also has a fund of 50 billion won (US$45 million) to invest and provide budgets to potential start-ups and ventures. Such a big investment fund addresses the region’s lack of funds for ventures. By last March, the ventures incubated in the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Daejeon attracted investment of 1.5 billion won (US$) in total. Moreover, the SK-KNET fund plans to directly invest in the ventures in the region, which will help Daejeon’s economy.
The Group also provides facilities such as 3D printers, application testing equipment, and education on business and information technology (IT).
The SK Group also plans to develop a business model with nine ventures, in which the group and ventures cooperate for product development, marketing and overseas market entry, the group said.
The cooperation between the conglomerate and the ventures has attracted the interest of overseas experts from the embassies of the United States and Switzerland in South Korea, the National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand, and scholars around East Asia.
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