South Korea Digest: GS Home Shopping investments, SoftBank Ventures invests in VCNC, and more

(1) GS Home Shopping invested in four startups from late 2010 and throughout 2011, totaling 6 billion won (US$5.2 M)

(2) SoftBank Ventures announced on the 22th December 2011 that it invested 1 billion won (US$ 900,000) in VCNC, a Korean startup. Founded last February by five people including CEO Park Jae-wook, who got a B.A. in electronic engineering from Seoul National University, VCNC (Value Creators & Company) developed ‘Between’, a social networking service for couples.

(3) The famous mobile messenger app ‘Kakao Talk‘ is suffering from the ‘Kakao Talk Jail’ issue. It constantly invites random people to the group chatting room, causing people to be annoyed by endless notifications.

(4) Group buying site Ticket Monster was renamed TMON. It started using top actor Gong Yu as its brand ambassador for its advertising campaign. Still ‘Ticket Monster’ remains the company’s corporate identity.

(5) Korea is chosen as the most app-crazed country per capita.

(6) The Korean Angel Investment Matching Fund is set to raise 10B won (US$8.6M). The fund will be used to boost growth momentum for startups. The Small and Medium Business Administration of Korea will back it up by start a support center for angel investment and offering more diverse incentives for angels.

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