Seoul Economic 03-01-2024
[CES 2024] 코골이 잡는 베개·해킹 없는 투표…"보안·헬스테크 시장 우리가 이끈다"
■ Interview with 4 startup representatives of the Best Innovation Award
Food tech company 'Top Table', mobile passport authentication 'Road System', etc.
Armed with the world's first technology...8 Korean companies out of 27 Best Innovation Awards "K-startups have the advantage of quick response from market identification to decision-making"
"Original technology is important to overcome the death valley...Overseas expansion support is also needed"
"When it comes to commercialising future technologies like healthcare and personal security, Korean companies are one step ahead of their foreign counterparts."
South Korean startups are among the stars of CES 2024, the world's largest electronics and information technology (IT) trade show, which is set to kick off on 9 September (local time). Korean startups swept eight of the 27 Most Innovative Awards at CES, the show's most prestigious honour, proving once again the competitiveness of local companies.
The CEOs of the four startups that won this year's CES Most Innovative Awards - Tenminds, Toptable, Crypto and Roadsystem - gathered at the Seoul Economic Daily headquarters on the 27th of last month before departing for the United States to discuss how they won the awards and how they see future tech trends changing.
Their conclusion was that for a startup to grow beyond the death valley in the long term, the underlying technology is more important than anything else, and constant innovation is required.
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Security is another area where Korean companies have a competitive edge. Roadsystem's mobile passport identity authentication technology and zkrypto's blockchain-based online voting system, which won the Best Innovation Award at CES this year, are considered groundbreaking security-related technologies. In particular, both zkrypto and Roadsystem's technologies hold the title of 'world first'.
"Voting has been an eternal problem for mankind, but the distrust of voting is getting worse and worse, especially with the issue of voter fraud in the last US presidential election," said Hyunok Oh, CEO of zkrypto. "As countries are trying to improve their voting systems, many people will visit our booth to learn about our technology."
Cybersecurity is also gaining ground, with 45 product categories featured at the show. Blockchain, which uses a distributed ledger rather than a central server to increase security and trust online, was also included as one of the categories. Korean conglomerates are also strengthening their security businesses. LG Electronics will unveil a cybersecurity management solution using AI technology for the first time at CES 2024. Its self-developed 'CSMS Cockpit Platform' acts as a control centre for software and hardware applied to vehicles, helping them prepare for and respond to cybersecurity throughout their entire life cycle. "As hacking methods become more sophisticated, investment in cybersecurity to prevent them will increase," said Oh.
The CEOs also expressed the need for government support to help them make business deals with overseas companies at CES. Above all, they said, support for overseas expansion is crucial. "Japan alone has a domestic demand of 130 million people, which allows startups to stay in their own country, but Korea does not have enough domestic demand," said Yoo. "We received a lot of calls from venture capitalists right after we won the Best Innovation Award," said Oh, adding, "In terms of overseas expansion, playing a role in a big offline stage like CES can yield greater results."
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