Yongsan International Business District's New Brand to Be Decided by Citizen Preference Vote

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is gathering citizens' opinions to decide on the global brand for the 'Yongsan International Business District.'

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On the 5th, Seoul announced that it will conduct a preference survey to select a brand to be used for international marketing, including attracting global companies' Asia-Pacific headquarters to the Yongsan International Business District.

The Yongsan International Business District is a project to create the world's first and largest-scale mixed-use business complex on a 495,000㎡ site behind Yongsan Station, which was formerly used by Korail as a railway maintenance depot. It will feature landmark buildings up to 100 stories tall.

Seoul is conducting the preference survey to find a brand suitable for global marketing that succinctly represents the identity of the Yongsan International Business District and imprints an image of Seoul's progressive future development on citizens, foreign investors, and visitors.

After expert consultations, six candidate brands for the Yongsan International Business District were selected: △Yongsan Seoul Core △Yongsan Yards △Yongsan IBD △Yongsan CBD △Yongsan Chang △Yongsan Maru.

From the 7th to the 13th, a one-week online preference survey will be conducted to intuitively express the Yongsan International Business District. Those who wish to participate can vote for one preferred brand (one vote per person) on the Seoul e-voting website. They can also provide reasons for their selection.

The final brand will be decided by combining the results of the online vote, offline voting held in the lobbies of Seoul City Hall and Yongsan District Office, and a separate preference survey for foreigners. After the first selection, expert consultations will be conducted, and the decision is expected by the end of this year.

Yongsan Seoul Core embodies the future vision that Yongsan, located in the heart of Seoul, will leap forward as the center of Asia-Pacific. Yongsan Yards expresses the identity of the area as a former railway maintenance depot and aims to convey a familiar image to foreigners through its similarity to New York's Hudson Yards project.

Yongsan International Business District (Yongsan IBD) intuitively represents the international business district and names it as a new business district among the three central business districts (CBD, GBD, YBD). Yongsan Central Business District (Yongsan CBD) uses a term that expresses the existing central business district within the city to convey an intuitive meaning to foreigners and investors.

Yongsan Chang conveys a double meaning: reflecting the history of the maintenance depot site and symbolizing a window (창, chang) projecting a new future. Yongsan Maru uses a pure Korean word meaning roof, mountain peak, and the central space of a traditional Korean house (hanok) to express that the Yongsan International Business District is a place where people from around the world gather and communicate alongside high-density development.

Examples of business district brand strategies include London’s 'King’s Cross,' New York’s 'Hudson Yards,' Madrid’s 'Nuevo Norte,' and Tokyo’s 'Azabudai Hills.' In Korea, there are Digital Media City (DMC) and Seoul International Exchange Complex District (SID).

Lim Chang-su, Director of Future Space Planning at Seoul City, said, “Brand naming will play an important role in establishing a differentiated image for the Yongsan International Business District, which will be developed as an innovative global business hub.” He added, “Through this naming preference survey, we hope to select a brand that is easily remembered and recognized not only by global investors and foreigners but also by the public.”

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