"Seongwoo Fandom and Anonymous Personal Broadcasts... Needs Aligned"

Jinjul Conquers Japanese Market in 2 Years... Nicknamed 'YouTube of Audio'
Successful Local Hiring Strategy in Japan... Aiming to Expand Overseas Services to US and Beyond

Choi Hyuk-jae, CEO of Spoon Radio

"There is a fandom culture around voice actors, and discovering usage patterns where users operate numerous SNS accounts without revealing their identities played a key role in accelerating our market entry," explained Choi Hyuk-jae, CEO of Spoon Radio, regarding the background of targeting the Japanese market. This means that understanding Japanese culture and users' consumption habits preceded the market approach. This is also why the real-time personal audio platform 'Spoon' is thriving in the Japanese market.

On the 22nd, CEO Choi said, "In Japan, people want to do personal broadcasting but are reluctant to expose their faces on video services and are cautious about revealing their identities, which is a cultural trait stronger than in other countries, making Spoon a good fit for the market." Spoon was launched in Japan in April 2018. After initially expanding overseas starting with Indonesia and Vietnam, Japan was chosen as the next target country. CEO Choi explained, "Based on our experience in the Indonesian and Vietnamese markets, we conducted research on markets with purchasing power, and considering market maturity and business aspects, we determined Japan as the next service region, leading to the third overseas launch."

CEO Choi's prediction was accurate. Within two years of entry, Spoon rose to the top as a real-time audio broadcasting app, often called the 'YouTube of audio.' Spoon Radio grew rapidly, generating more than half of its revenue from Japan last year. However, the process of establishing a service that started in Korea in the Japanese market was not easy. There were significant challenges from the initial formation of the Japanese team. CEO Choi said, "After months of searching to hire locals who deeply understand Japanese culture, we were able to recruit our first Japanese employee who had experience working at Yahoo Japan." Together with this employee, Spoon Radio formed the Japanese team and prepared for launch, quickly enhancing their understanding of Japanese culture. Regarding recruitment, understanding local culture was paramount. CEO Choi stated, "Our strategy to hire all personnel except for development from local Japanese staff was effective in quickly establishing our presence in the market."

Spoon Radio is currently actively recruiting talent to expand its overseas services. They announced a 'Talent Development Program' aiming to hire over 100 people within the year. This includes a global exchange work program that allows employees to be dispatched for three months to overseas branches located in Tokyo and San Francisco, with support for local accommodation and living expenses. To aggressively expand in the global market, they are also considering new investment attraction around the second half of this year. CEO Choi said, "Our first goal is to firmly establish Spoon as the number one service in Korea and Japan, which generate the most traffic and revenue. The second is to achieve meaningful results in the United States, the largest market in the world."

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