What can you learn by visiting the top technology hotspots of the world?
Since over a decade I have been traveling to the most important hotspots for technology innovation. Places where the best talent, innovation and investment money comes together. Places which are like big magnets attracting significantly more human capital as well venture capital than anywhere else. Here you can experience the trends of tomorrow already today.
Seoul is the most wired city in the world. Internet Penetration rates reaching 99%. Mobile Smartphone penetration over 70%. At home: 100 Mbit/s for 10 bucks a month. On the go: LTE Advanced with up to 1 Gbit/s mobile broadband connection. Last week I had been on a field trip to Seoul to experience the future of mobile at its point of origin.
The first time I had been in Seoul was in 2002 during a trend tour for a big automotive company. Already then South Korea was very advanced and a few years ahead of our mobile technology development.
Today the Internet landscape of South Korea is different. Giants like Google or Facebook do not play a major role here. Rules are different, Players are different and consumer behavior is different. It almost feels like travelling time to see how the future of mobile media could look like. Of course many trends and developments will never happen in USA or Europe due to the cultural differences. Nevertheless Seoul is a great place to reflect on things we take for granted and questioning the state of digital media. And some korean companies will grow and expand internationally as well (e.g. LINE social messaging, part of the NAVER group).
