[Column] The Korea Fintech Event Returns Bittersweetly

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunju Lee] From the 28th to the 30th of last month, Korea Fintech Week was held at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul. The exhibition, which had shifted to an online event during the COVID-19 period, was held as an 'offline' event for the first time in three years. On-site, the industry’s excited atmosphere reflected expectations as financial authorities expressed their commitment to fostering small and medium-sized fintech companies.

On the opening day, Kim Juhyun, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, toured the companies' exhibition booths and reportedly expressed his determination to seriously listen to the on-site stories of small and medium-sized fintech companies. Chairman Kim also conveyed messages to Kwon Daeyoung, Standing Commissioner, advising him to promote policies that well reflect the voices and demands of small and medium-sized fintech firms. Lee Geunju, Chairman of the Korea Fintech Industry Association, said, “Although there were shortcomings in the past, this time the authorities’ commitment is clearly visible,” showing optimism.

However, small and medium-sized fintech companies that actually operated booths at Korea Fintech Week voiced more disappointment than expectation. During the event, booths were divided into spacious ‘experience zones’ and relatively smaller ‘theme zones.’ However, the experience zones, where attendees could actually try out services, were occupied by about ten major big tech companies such as Naver Financial, Toss, Kakao Pay, and leading commercial banks. A fintech company official said, “Since this was the first offline event in a long time, we thought many citizens, media, and related organizations would visit and that we could use this opportunity to promote our services well. But because the venue was cramped and everyone was clustered together, that did not happen.”

Recently, the government has been focusing on fintech as one of the themes of its ‘innovation’ policy. The Yoon Seok-yeol administration is internally considering the need for an innovation brand policy, and fintech is being seriously considered as one of its branches. On the 27th of last month, the Financial Services Commission held a meeting exclusively with small and medium-sized fintech companies in their early stages to listen to policy proposals for service activation. In this context, some fintech companies want to trust the government and have expectations, while some small and medium-sized fintech firms are skeptical that ‘fintech activation’ might end up being ‘big tech-centered.’ At this Korea Fintech Week event, big tech companies were doing well, but the reality that many small and medium-sized fintech companies are struggling was clearly revealed, leaving a bitter impression.

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