Seoul Ranks 20th Globally in 'Global Startup Ecosystem' Evaluation with a Value of 47 Trillion Won

Startup Genome, Analysis of 270 Countries... Perfect Score in Knowledge Accumulation Among 7 Evaluation Areas
Market Entry and Ecosystem Activity Rated 'Excellent'... Global Connectivity, Funding, and Sustainable Growth Index 'Insufficient'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] In the evaluation of the startup environment of cities worldwide, Seoul ranked 20th. Seoul's startup ecosystem value was found to be as high as 47 trillion won.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 28th that Seoul received its highest evaluation since it was first included in the survey in 2017, conducted by Startup Genome, a global startup ecosystem analysis organization, which evaluated 270 cities in 100 countries worldwide.

According to the 'GSER (Global Startup Ecosystem Report) 2020,' Seoul's startup ecosystem ranking was outside the top 30 in 2017, but in 2019 it was included in the 'Next 30,' a group of promising next-generation ecosystems, and this year it jumped directly to 20th place, showing a dynamic upward trend.

GSER 2020 cited the emergence of high-growth startups called 'unicorns,' Seoul's high R&D capabilities as a technology innovation hub in Asia, and a high patent application rate as reasons for this rise in ranking. In particular, it highly evaluated Seoul's active investment in artificial intelligence (AI), fintech, and life sciences in the public policy sector.

Additionally, Seoul's startup scale-up policies, the 1.2 trillion won innovation growth fund led proactively by the city, and tailored full-cycle support for new startups were described as making Seoul "an attractive city for entrepreneurs."

Seoul's startup ecosystem received excellent evaluations in knowledge accumulation, market reach, ecosystem performance, and talent. Especially in the knowledge accumulation category, it received a perfect score. On the other hand, areas such as global connectedness, funding, and growth index were pointed out as needing improvement.

The report also includes an overall analysis of Seoul's startup ecosystem. The ecosystem value was evaluated at 47 trillion won, which is about 40% of the value of the global top 5 ecosystems including Silicon Valley, New York, London, Beijing, and Boston.

Among the detailed industries within Seoul's startup ecosystem, the gaming industry and life science sector showed strong performance. Korea's gaming industry is the fourth largest in the world, generating approximately 15 trillion won in revenue. A representative example is Bluehole, a fantasy game development company, which became a unicorn after receiving a 600 billion won investment from Tencent Holdings in 2018.

Based on this 2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, the city plans to analyze Seoul's strengths and areas for improvement through the Startup Policy Committee and discuss the direction of the city's startup policies.

Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, said, "The future economy depends on technology startups based on innovation, and the importance of startups is growing even more in unpredictable situations like COVID-19." He added, "Just as we have steadily invested over the past eight years to nurture future growth industries and talent, we will focus on scaling up promising startups as a key strategy to revitalize the economy amid the prolonged COVID-19 situation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.