Home   >   More   >   Hot Links   >   [NYT] What Silicon Valley Can Learn From Seoul

[NYT] What Silicon Valley Can Learn From Seoul

June 3, 2015

South Korean middle school students use their smartphones at a bus station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 15, 2015. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean middle school students use their smartphones at a bus station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 15, 2015. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

[THE NEW YORK TIMES] — Like most young people in the Bay Area, Mike Kim grew up believing that the future of technology was being forged in Silicon Valley. Raised in Piedmont, an affluent suburb of Oakland, Kim was in college during the rise of Facebook, and he watched in amazement as tech start-ups transformed the world around him. After graduating in 2006, he found work in the industry, at Zynga, Monster.com and LinkedIn.

Then, five months ago, he accepted an offer to work for Woowa Brothers, a South Korean company that runs a food-delivery start-up called Baedal Minjok. The job was great — but living in Seoul was nothing less than a revelation.

“When I was in S.F., we called it the mobile capital of the world,” he said. “But I was blown away because Korea is three or four years ahead.” Back home, Kim said, people celebrate when a public park gets Wi-Fi. But in Seoul, even subway straphangers can stream movies on their phones, deep beneath the ground. “When I go back to the U.S., it feels like the Dark Ages,” he said. “It’s just not there yet.” [READ MORE]