INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Right: in June, the then international trade secretary, Liam Fox, signed an outline post-Brexit continuity free-trade agreement with his South Korean counterpart, Yoo Myung-hee. Below: K-pop group Bangtan Boys (BTS) have become one of South Korea’s most famous global exports
‘If you look at some key challenges facing the UK, these are pertinent to South Korea too. This provides fertile ground for collaboration’
the outline free-trade deal will allow fi rms from the two nations to continue trading with each other without tariffs under any withdrawal scenario. With bilateral trade worth £14.6 billion last year, Sean Blakeley, CEO at the British Chamber of Commerce in Korea, made no understatement when he told Director in August: “Given that we’re now facing a pro-hard-Brexit administration in Downing Street, the importance of this free-trade agreement to our members is quite signifi cant.” Mike Welch, director of trade and investment at DIT South Korea, observes that there are “big similarities between the two countries, particularly our industrial strategies. If you look at some key challenges facing the UK – including the rise of AI and an ageing society – these are pertinent to South Korea too. This provides fertile ground for collaboration.”
Indeed, a British-led consortium called 5G RailNext is about to test infotainment services on the Seoul Metro – a £2.4 million project funded equally by the two governments (the Glasgow Subway is next in line). Meanwhile, Banbury- based electric truck manufacturer Arrival recently established an assembly plant in South Korea.
THE RIGHT CHANNELS
Everywhere you look in Seoul, its citizens’ love of technology is clear. Its subway stations teem with commuters who appear surgically attached to their smartphones. In rooms known as “PC bangs” all around the city, youngsters play popular video games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – published by local developer Bluehole – for hours at a time. There’s even a 1,400sq m arena where drone enthusiasts can fl y their aircraft. For any British enterprise hoping to satisfy South Korea’s appetite for new tech, Blakeley has some important caveats. “Many UK companies would adopt an Apple-fi rst approach, but this is such a dominant market for Samsung and LG that you’d need to be Android-fi rst,” he says. And forget Facebook and WeChat – it’s all about KakaoTalk, a messaging service used by 220 million Asians.
South Korea #6
ranks below only the
US, China, Hong Kong, the UAE and Japan as a non-European importer of British goods and services.
“KakaoTalk is linked to KakaoPay, KakaoMap, KakaoTaxi and so on. Anyone looking to enter this market must therefore have some kind of KakaoTalk integration in their strategy,” Blakeley adds. “The audience is too good to miss out on.” Denby has built a 20-strong in-house sales and marketing team in Seoul, rather than leaving its local partners and distributors to carry the promotional workload. “We can’t rely upon South Korean consumers to love our product just because they happen to see it in a store. They need to see it in the digital ecosphere,” Lazell says. “That’s why you need brilliant marketers of the right generation, because they live and breathe in that environment – digital natives who live their lives on Instagram.” South Koreans half-jokingly refer to their permanently wired country as the “Republic of
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