North America Most Popular Region for Korean Startups
About four out of 10 startups that have entered foreign markets targeted the global market from the beginning, a KOTRA survey has found.
KOTRA conducted a survey on 135 Korean startups with CEOs under 39 years old that entered overseas markets with innovative technology.
Startups that started a business overseas without a parent company based in Korea accounted for 37.0 percent of the total, the survey says.
Of the 135 companies, 91.1 percent moved into overseas markets by establishing local corporations, and only 6.6 percent set up liaison offices or branch offices.
North America was the most popular region for Korean startups with 48.1 percent of the total operating there. Of them, 80 percent were located in Silicon Valley.
North America was followed by Asia (34.1 percent), Europe (11.1 percent), the Middle East (3.0 percent), Oceania (2.2 percent), and Latin America (1.5 percent).
Their business sectors varied –- the mobile sector (11.1 percent), artificial intelligence (9.6 percent), big data (9.6 percent), games (8.9 percent), lifestyle (7.4 percent), and edu-tech (7.4 percent).
Intangible services or applications (72.6 percent) accounted for an overwhelming majority of their business items. Items that combine tangible products and services took up 18.5 percent and tangible products 8.9 percent.
In terms of preparation periods, one to two years were the most common with 40 percent, while less than one year and more than three years were 7.4 percent, respectively.
In terms of the amount of attracted investments, companies in the series A (about 1 billion won) stage accounted for the largest portion, or 26.7 percent of the total. This was followed by those in the Seed (less than 100 million won) stage with 17 percent, those in the Free A (about 500 million won) stage with 10.4 percent, those in the Series B (about 5 billion won) stage with 9.6 percent and those in the Series C and above (about 10 billion won) stage with 5.9 percent.
As for the numbers of employees, 37.8 percent of them ranked first with five or fewer employees. Those with six to 10 employees and 11 to 30 employees accounted for 18.5 percent and 17.8 percent, respectively. Those with more than 30 employees were 17.8 percent.
Observing sales figures, two out of 10 companies (17.8 percent) exceeded US$1 million in annual sales. Those with annual sales of more than US$500,000 and less than US$1 million dollars accounted for 4.4 percent. Those with annual sales between US$100,000 and US$500,000, 6.7 percent, those with annual sales between US$10,000 and US$100,000, 8.9 percent and those with annual sales of less than US$10,000, 7.4 percent.