K-Mobile App Showdown Comes to Santa Clara on September 25th!

The super hot Korean App market, already up 768% over 2012 (source: PocketGamer), is headed to Santa Clara. Six Korean entrepreneurs will showcase their mobile Apps: Swizzle, Five Thirty, CreativeBomb, StepJournal, Zimly, and AstroNest at a one day event to be held at the Santa Clara Marriot on September 25th.Leading Silicon Valley investors are taking notice of Korea.  

Most recently Sequoia made its big bet on Coupang, a Korean Groupon by investing $100m in this company (source: Techcrunch)  South Korea is also home to major players in the Android ecosystem such as Samsung and LG and is #3 in revenue for Google Play (Source: AppAnnie).

Just last month, Google decided to open a startup-incubating center in Gangnam, one of Seoul’s trendiest districts, because of the Korean mobile industry’s growth potential.

“While we were looking at cities in which to open a campus in Asia, we all believed what’s happening in Korea and Seoul with the mobile industry is breathtaking,” said Sundar Pichai, Google VP and Director of Android in a recent article in The Korea Times.

Support from the Korean government has been directed into the development of a “Creative Economy” as a national goal. This has also helped legitimize the choice of entrepreneurship as a career path for highly educated business and engineering graduates. Over the next three years the government will disburse $3.7 billion to support entrepreneurship and the creative industries (Source: Forbes).

According to Claire Chang, Managing Director of Ignite XL, a Silicon Valley based accelerator supporting Korean and Asian Entrepreneurs: “All of these activities are fueling entrepreneurship in Korea like never before.  And given how talented and driven Korean entrepreneurs are, it’s just a matter of time before we see big success stories coming out of Korea.”

Don’t Miss This Opportunity to Familiarize Yourself with the Korean App Market and Meet Six Talented Korean Entrepreneurs.

Register Here

The K Mobile-App Showdown will begin 2:30, September 25th at the Santa Clara Marriott at 2700 Mission College Blvd. Santa Clara, CA. The Korean Apps include: Swizzle, Five Thirty, CreativeBomb, StepJournal, Zimly, and AstroNest

There will be a panel discussion focused on Silicon Valley based accelerators that bring in entrepreneurs from overseas.  The panel will examine their overall track records so far, the unique opportunities and challenges that they face, and what contribution and impact  these foreign entrepreneurs add to the Silicon Valley startup eco-system.  

Invited panelists include: Nima AdelKhani of PITME, Nicolai Wadstrom of Bootstrap Labs, Fadi Bishara of Blackbox, Oliver Hanisch of German Accelerator, and Phil Yoon of Big Basin Capital.

The event is a sponsored by Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea (MSIP) and National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA)

 About NIPA
The National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) is a professional government agency affiliated with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea (MSIP).

Its mission is to foster engineering expertise and domestic SMEs to direct research and development policy and strategy, to promote international cooperation and to contribute to the globalization of the IT industry.  NIPA has been focused on various supporting programs for the ICT companies, and building a foundation for the industry by the operation of the IT complex, the IT Promotion Fund, and human resource development in the IT Sector. 

About the K-Mobile App Showdown & Presenting Companies

K-Mobile App Showdown 2014 - Showcasing some of the best mobile apps from Korea

Agenda: 2PM to 2:30PM - Registration & Networking 2:30PM to 3:30PM - Panel Discussion:  Foreign entrepreneurs are coming to Silicon Valley 3:30PM to 4:30PM - Startup Pitch (6 K-mobile app companies will present) 4:30PM to 5:30PM - Networking Reception

Panelists: Phil Yoon, Big Basin Capital, Nima AdelKhani, PITME  Middle Nicolai Wadstrom, BootStrap Labs, YeongSae Kim, igniteXL, Steven Kwak, STIC Ventures.

Presenting Companies

Five Thirty (Let’s Fold) develops Let’s Fold, an innovative mobile puzzle game that reimagines the art of origami. Let’s Fold allows players to compete alongside or against their friends to share the timeless tradition, transforming a centuries old past time into a 21st century shared experience.  The game centers on the unlimited possibilities that can arise from a single sheet of paper, challenging players to match a shape using a set of number of folds.  www.letsfold.net


(Swizzle) is a provider of Swizzle, a social jukebox that makes your parties and events more enjoyable than ever by crowdsourcing music from friends.  Swizzle lets users create a playlist and invite their party guests to add their favorite music directly to your playlist to make the ultimate party mix.  Besides the collaborative playlisting feature, users can also rate their friends’ recommendations and have top recommenders to suggest good music.   www.swizzle.fm


Connection (Zimly) is a development-oriented company that specializes in media solutions.  Nomad Connection developed Zimly, an All-in-One Media Player that seamlessly streams media from computers to mobile devices.  Without needing to connect cables, or wait for encoding manually, Zimly provides its service on three screens:  mobile, computer, and TV.   www.zim.ly

Weplanet (STEP Journal) assists you in capturing and telling the amazing story of your life. Life poetry told by sensors - minimal efforts and 100% privacy. The true power of Automatic Journaling!  Using iPhone sensors, apps and external sources such as social services & wearable devices, STEP Journal gathers your scattered life moments on behalf of you. You can easily add meaning to them with cute icons representing typical daily activities. Stats and Personal Dashboard with aesthetic visualizations of daily patterns allow you to look back and reflect on your days.   www.step.pe

Games (Astro Nest) launches on iOS:  Legendary Sci-Fi Strategy makes its way to mobile.  One of gaming’s most beloved strategy titles, the sci-fi themed Astronest is making a comeback in a big-way – as a free to play title on iOS.  With ten chapters, 100 stages, and a universe to conquer, Astronest welcomes back players who remember it fondly and offers new players an experience like non other.  www.angames.co.kr

CreativeBomb (Boto the Pink Dolphin) is an interactive edutainment mobile game app for toddlers.  Boto has six stages of learning.  Each stage comes with stories filled with fun characters, missions, and rewards items to motivate learning and to contribute to the development of children’s reading, cognitive capability, creativity, music, and even foreign language learning. http://www.creativeboto.com

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Note to Media: Media Passes are available and media passes and registration can be obtained here: Sandra Evans will be the on-site media contact the day of the event. She can be contacted at Tel 415 887 9230 or Cell 415 596-2089 or sandra@seandassoc.com . We have easy access for media crews and trucks and can arrange for interviews with panelists or Korean entrepreneurs.Directions to Marriott Hotel Click here  

Contact Information

sandra evans

PR Manager K-Mobile App Showdown event

Sandra Evans & Associates (SE&A)

Contact via E-mail