This article is republished with permission from our partners at beSUCCESS. The author is Hugh Yoon.
It’s been five years since the second venture boom started in Korea, and now there are several startups that are big enough to compete with KOSDAQ-listed companies. These success stories create a positive trend as they draw more capital and talent to Korea’s venture industry, away from traditional tech employers like Samsung, Hyundai, and SK Telecom.
Let’s take a look at the top ten biggest tech startups in South Korea. This list is inspired by a Korean-language list on Under The Radar, a local startup-focused blog.
A similar list for the US would be full of social media startups, but there’s only one on this Korean list – albeit in the top spot. The remainder of the list is dominated by ecommerce, gaming, and app development, showing that the competition is thriving in these three main areas.
As a disclaimer, it is debatable whether some of the companies listed can still truly be classified as startups. Also note that precise valuations are not available, so we have conducted extensive research to determine valuation estimates based on available figures. For this article, we specifically set our startup universe from the beginning of the mobile and social tech boom, with a focus on companies that are highly likely to go public soon.
1. KakaoTalk ($2 billion to $3 billion)
Kakao – maker of the popular KakaoTalk messaging app – is one of the most successful startup companies the country has ever produced. KakaoTalk is more than just a messaging app, and it now serves as a mobile-only platform and portal for things like social gaming, ebooks, and music streaming.
Equity in Kakao was recently traded in the OTC market at $70 to $80 per share, which roughly adds up to $2 billion in total value. From a growth perspective, we estimate a total valuation of $5 billion, after applying the industry average sales-to-price ratio of 0.1 to Kakao’s estimated revenue of $500 million in 2015.
However, with their business slightly stalling at the moment, experts believe that Kakao’s value will be in the lower range.
Kakao is looking to IPO, probably next year.
Up against rapid growth from larger messaging apps like WeChat, WhatsApp, Line, and Viber, the Korean startup has been very quiet – worryingly quiet? – about its numbers since last July when it reached 100 million registered users.
2. Coupang ($350 million)
Coupang is a daily deals, flash sales, and social ecommerce site operated by Forward Ventures, a US-based company.
In 2012, Business Insider placed Coupang 37th in its top 100 of the world’s most valuable privately-held tech companies. Coupang supposedly commanded $550 million in value at that time, but the data in the article was not validated in the right way. Considering a slight downward turn in the online deals industry in Korea, Coupang’s value may need to be heavily discounted from earlier estimates.
3. Ticket Monster ($300 million)
Ticket Monster’s value can be more precisely measured as it has been involved in some major transactions. In 2011, the company was acquired by LivingSocial in 2011 for $300 million, and later by Groupon for $260 million. The daily deals site is sometimes referred to as Tmon.
Right now, the company should be valued roughly around the same amount. At the time Ticket Monster was acquired, the valuation seemed somewhat underpriced. That was mainly because Ticket Monster had some financial issues at that time, and the overall industry trend for ecommerce was downwards. Currently, Ticket Monster seems to be stable and has succeeded in trimming some of its previous losses. (See: This app turns Twitter into a Quora-esque search engine for all your burning questions)
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There are many more rapidly growing ventures in Korea that didn’t get into the top 10 list. IUM, NBT Partners, ID INCU, Frograms, KnowRe, Studymax,
SE Works, and 5Rocks command valuations of around $10 million to $30 million right now – and are showing good signs of sustained growth. Sirgoo Lee, the CEO of Kakao, said recently that with the mobile technology ecosystem having existed for only three years, the startup scene is now on the cusp of truly taking hold and making an impact on the economy. “In 2014, we hope to see more successful startups emerging in the scene,” he stated.
Read more: South Korea’s top 10 most valuable tech startups
http://www.techinasia.com/top-10-most-valuable-south-korea-startups-list/
