For Telecom Equipment Industry
SK Telecom and Facebook are planning to set up a startup incubator in South Korea early next year in order to assist in the growth of startups in the telecom equipment industry.
This plan was made public at the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) meeting that took place on November 2 at the headquarters of Facebook located in California. The idea of the incubator, dubbed Facebook Campus, is to ensure the survival of venture firms in the industry during the three- to seven-year period in which new technology should be tested and verified before commercialization, which is an obstacle to startups short of financial resources in most cases.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg organized the TIP in February this year to facilitate the development of 5G telecom technology and access to information technology in developing countries. It is currently headed by SK Telecom CTO Choi Jin-sung.
According to their plan, SK Telecom is going to provide office spaces in the incubator along with tips and advice for firms in it. Facebook, in the meantime, is to pick out promising venture firms to be housed in the incubator and help the selected firms to be financed by leading venture capitals in the Silicon Valley.