[Interview] "Quickly, Quickly Is Good"... Why Notion Is Focusing on the Korean Market

Pravesh Mistry, Global Head of Sales at Notion

"Korea's User Growth Outpaces the Global Market"

Korean Customers Among 'Top 5' Users of Notion AI's New Features

Data Center to Be Established in Seoul Within Three Months

"Korea is an important and advanced market. The rate of user growth is strong compared to the global market, and the speed at which users adopt and spread new ways of working is overwhelmingly fast."

Pravesh Mistry, Global Head of Sales at Notion, who leads the company's worldwide sales organization, shared these views about the significance of the Korean market during an interview at the Notion Korea office in Gangnam, Seoul, on April 21. He explained that the importance of the market is high because both the scale of customer growth and the speed of new technology adoption in Korea are faster than anywhere else in the world.

Pravesh Mistry, Global Head of Sales at Notion, is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily. Photo by Dongjoo Yoon

Notion is a work productivity tool launched in the United States in 2016. It offers a wide range of features including real-time synchronized notes and documents, website building, project management, collaboration, and database functions. Currently, Notion has surpassed 100 million users worldwide. In addition to global companies such as OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Toyota, domestic companies like GS Group, LG AI Research Institute, and Danggeun have adopted Notion for business use.

Notion has high expectations for the Korean market. Korean was the first foreign language service the company supported. In August 2020, Notion launched its Korean version and officially announced its entry into the Korean market. Mistry noted, "Korea not only has many users but also stands out in terms of the depth of Notion usage," adding, "The number of customers using AI-based new features ranks among the top five globally."

Recently, Notion has been focusing on enhancing its AI services. Its proprietary AI service, 'Notion AI,' supports functions such as drafting and summarizing notes, translation, and even automatically generating meeting minutes from transcripts. The company has also recently started providing AI agent support to automate predefined work tasks.

Mistry explained, "The unique feature of Notion AI is that AI can naturally blend into the work I am doing," adding, "The convenience of use, as well as flexibility that matches the volume and flow of work, are also strengths." He continued, "Notion has established partnerships with major companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic and leverages their AI models," and added, "Users can flexibly use AI features as needed, according to their workload."

Notion is planning new investments for companies in Korea that are required by security regulations to store and utilize data domestically. The company currently operates its own data centers in the United States and in Frankfurt, Germany, and plans to build a data center in Seoul as well. Once the data center is established, Korean users will be able to choose to store their data either in Korea or the United States. Mistry said, "We plan to build a data center in Seoul within the next three months," adding, "This should resolve various regulatory and governance issues to some extent."

Regarding his goals in Korea, he stated, "I want users not to stop at simply using Notion or AI, but to experience changes in their daily lives through work automation," and added, "I hope integrated work methods will lead to better outcomes."

Pravesh Mistry, Global Head of Sales at Notion, is posing with the character Sesame Street, symbolizing Notion customers, after an interview with The Asia Business Daily. Photo by Dongju Yoon

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