Native app market One Store changes overseas expansion strategy... Targeting Europe and North America

A change is detected in the overseas expansion strategy of the native app market One Store. The priority target region is shifting from the Asian market to Europe and North America. As stricter big tech regulations centered on English-speaking countries make it easier for third-party app markets to enter the market, One Store is actively recruiting talent with a high understanding of and investment capabilities in these regions.

On the 19th, One Store hired Lee Ki-hyuk, a global investment expert, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). As an investment expert covering both domestic and international markets, he has been responsible for sourcing investments, asset allocation, and initial public offering (IPO) strategies at global investment firms such as KDB Industrial Bank, Ziff Brothers Investment, Balyasny Asset Management, and Nine Masts Capital.

Industry insiders evaluate the hiring of this CFO as a preparatory step for full-scale overseas expansion. Given his high understanding of global capital markets and investment capabilities, it is expected that he will play a pivotal role in establishing overseas subsidiaries and market penetration.

The hiring of this CFO is also expected to bring changes to the overseas expansion strategy. Initially, One Store prioritized Southeast Asia as its primary expansion region, judging it advantageous due to the high purchasing potential of the mobile content market and the popularity of 'K-content' in the cultural sphere. Last year, it selected Singapore as a base and established ONESTORE GLOBAL PTE. LTD., but has yet to see significant results in terms of profitability.

Considering that the CFO is an investment expert in English-speaking countries, it is highly likely that One Store’s priority target regions will shift to Europe and North America. In particular, the European market is considered timely for entry as the European Union (EU) has passed the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The DMA is a law designed to prevent the abuse of market dominance by large platform operators who act as gatekeepers between consumers and sellers. It designates platform operators above a certain size as 'gatekeepers' and regulates them. The law includes provisions such as prohibiting giving high rankings to their own products, allowing users to choose default search engines and web browsers when purchasing new smartphones, and permitting the deletion of pre-installed applications on platforms. In other words, it provides grounds for installing One Store on Apple iPhones, which had been exclusive about installing other app markets. If One Store maintains favorable pricing policies for tenants, such as low commissions, it is expected to capture a significant market share in the early stages of entry.

The biggest challenge for successful overseas expansion is how to overcome the resistance from Google, Apple, and others. Previously, Google, which operates the app market 'Play Store,' has repeatedly blocked Korean mobile game companies from releasing games on competing app markets. It offered game companies app market featuring and overseas expansion support on the condition that they do not release games on One Store. Featuring refers to placing an app in the most visible spot when consumers open the app market. Due to such behavior, Google was fined 42.1 billion KRW by the Korea Fair Trade Commission.

An industry insider said, "Even in Korea, One Store’s home ground where the market size is not large, it faces such resistance, so there is no guarantee that the same will not happen overseas," adding, "In addition to technical issues such as building service platforms, legal and political capabilities to overcome resistance must also be developed."

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