Gmarket Hosts In-House Innovation Technology Idea Contest 'Hackathon'

Gmarket held the finals of the in-house innovation technology idea competition, "Hackathon," at its headquarters located in Yeoksam-dong on the 9th. (Photo by Gmarket)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Gmarket announced on the 11th that it held an in-house innovation technology idea competition, ‘Hackathon Restart 2022.’ A hackathon is a combination of hacking and marathon, referring to an event where IT-related participants form teams within a limited time to continuously generate ideas and complete business models.

The three-day competition held from the 7th to the 9th focused on themes such as ▲buyer experience ▲seller experience ▲O2O service improvement to provide a better shopping experience. Hosted by the Tech Headquarters, the event featured a total of 33 teams and 131 participants, including developers, planners, and designers. Notably, more than 58% of the participants were new employees, highlighting the strong interest and participation of the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) young staff who are keen on developing their individual capabilities.

The preliminary round of the hackathon took place over two days from the 7th to the 8th at a total of 15 shared offices across Seoul. To provide participants with the value of immersing themselves in creating works away from their regular duties, independent spaces rather than offices were provided.

A total of 8 teams that passed the preliminaries competed in the finals on the 9th at Gmarket’s headquarters located in Yeoksam-dong by presenting their creations. The progress of the finals was broadcast live to all employees, and three teams were awarded based on mobile voting by all employees, including executives. The awarded teams proposed solutions related to ▲improving the buyer’s shopping environment ▲enhancing employee work capabilities.

Kim Taesu, head of Gmarket PX Headquarters, said, “As a leading IT company representing domestic online shopping, we spare no effort in providing various support to enhance the skills of our technology and developers.” He added, “In the future, we plan to expand the scale of this event to include all employees responsible not only for tech but also for business, making it an innovative opportunity that generates momentum for Gmarket.”

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