Korean startups in content, tourism, and entertainment can look forward to a good year as big investments come their way. Global entertainment OTT Netflix is investing more in Korea, and local startup support body KOCCA has almost doubled its budget for gaming startups this year. What could be a better sign of start to getting back to normalcy than the beginning of inoculation for COVID-19 in South Korea this week? Check out what was in the news in South Korea with KoreaTechDesk.
Netflix to invest $500 million in Korea in 2021
Source: The Korea Times
Global streaming service Netflix said it will funnel US$500 million into creating South Korean projects this year, including two films. “Netflix has more than 200 million paid users across the world, including 2.8 million in South Korea,” Kim Min-young, vice president of Netflix, said in an event streamed online. “For 2021, we will invest $500 million into Korean content and help the entire world enjoy Korean shows.” Since its Korean market debut in 2015, the U.S. entertainment giant has spent some $700 million on South Korean projects and made about 80 Korean originals, including the historical zombie thriller “Kingdom” and the horror series “Sweet Home.”
KOCCA to invest W22.4b in Korean games
Source: The Korean Herald
The Korea Creative Content Agency announced a budget of 22.4 billion won ($20 million) to promote the local games industry and produce global game content. The budget, which is a significant increase from last year’s 14.7 billion won last year, will be used to fund four different sectors — general games, functional games, new technology-based games and new market-creating games. The total number of projects to receive funding also increased to 66, from 46 last year.
Seoul City to fosters 16 Tourism Startups, 460 million won support
Source: Yonhap News
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 21st February that it will support a total of 460 million won by holding a ‘Seoul-Tourism Startup Cooperation Project’ contest to foster tourism startups. The city will select 16 startups and support up to 50 million won per company for project expenses. It also will provide startup consulting, public relations, market development, and priority to use startup support facilities.
40 Innovative Startups In Korea to Enter ‘Amazon Launchpad’
Source: News 1 Korea
The Korea International Trade Association announced on the 21st February that 40 domestic startups have been selected for Amazon’s marketing platform ‘Amazon Launchpad’. Amazon Launchpad is a premium marketing platform for innovative products. The selection criteria are strict, with only 2.9% of the tens of thousands of support companies in the world successfully entering the store. Premium services such as differentiated promotion pages, video marketing, product promotion and sales-related consulting are also provided to selected companies for one year.
Korea on Friday kicked off its national Covid-19 vaccination scheme, marking the first step in the country’s plan to inoculate 70 percent of the population by November.https://t.co/6bgmj5Cope pic.twitter.com/tVfkgbQ95h
— Korea JoongAng Daily (@JoongAngDaily) February 26, 2021
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