KOTRA "40% of Startups Expanding Overseas Founded with Overseas Market as Initial Goal"

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] It has been revealed that 40% of Korean startups operating overseas aimed at the overseas market from the very beginning when they were founded. These startups continue their challenges by establishing local subsidiaries without having a parent company in Korea and directly entering the overseas market from the start.

On the 17th, a survey conducted by KOTRA targeting 135 Korean startups that have expanded overseas showed that startups founded overseas without a parent company in Korea accounted for 37% of the total. Among the forms of expansion, 91% of the companies entered the market by establishing overseas subsidiaries.

The region where Korean startups have expanded the most is North America, accounting for 48.1% of the total, with 80% of these having a base in Silicon Valley. The main items were 'intangible services and applications,' which accounted for an overwhelming 72.6%. The fields of expansion were relatively evenly distributed, including mobile (11.1%), artificial intelligence (9.6%), big data (9.6%), games (8.9%), lifestyle (7.4%), edutech (7.4%), fintech (6.7%), and beauty (6.7%).

Regarding sales scale, startups with annual sales exceeding 1 million dollars accounted for the largest share at 17.8%, and 40% of all respondents said that it took 1 to 2 years to prepare for overseas expansion. Additionally, only about 30% of these startups had experience participating in government or public institution support projects for overseas expansion.

Kwon Pyung-oh, President of KOTRA, said, "We will spare no effort to support the birth of more Korean startups expanding overseas," adding, "In November, we will hold Global Open Innovation Korea for two weeks to provide a platform where 500 of our startups can target the global market."

Since April, KOTRA has been supporting the overseas founding of 101 startups through the 'Global Jump 300' program, providing consultations tailored to target markets and demands, market development, and investment attraction services at key trade centers throughout the year.

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