How Korea, a onetime digital trendsetter, became a laggard in an era of smartphones—and amazing apps.
Even though Korea is home to the number two and three global handset maker, respectively Samsung and LG it losing ground in setting the pace and guiding the mobile (notably smartphone) industry. As in result, the Korean government had been preparing to shift focus to software from hardware for about a year, but the iPhone sensation provided a wake-up call. Initiatives such as launching a state-funded program to nurture software start-ups. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy is budgeting some $880 million to back software companies over the next three years. It aims to double the number of Korean software engineers to 300,000 in 2013 from 2008 and triple software exports to $15 billion.
Nonetheless, despite the government’s software worries, Korea has had some notable successes. Such as in gaming (online fantasy game Lineage),social networking service Cyworld, which was launched earlier than Facebook, is dominant in Korea. After eight years of offering Korean-language search, Google has just 2% of the market, compared with 64% held by Naver [Source].
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