À̹ÌÁö È®´ë [Photo provided by KISED]
South Korea¡¯s small-sized game publishers supported by the government and the world¡¯s biggest search engine Google will set up a joint booth at the country¡¯s largest game show G-STAR 2019 that will run from Thursday to Sunday in Busan.
Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) and Google Play selected around 60 firms that can receive financial support of up to 800 million won ($687,167) for commercialization, training programs and research and development. For the top 3 firms, the government fully subsidized online advertisements and Google provided consulting in various business sectors. Among them, 44 firms will establish a booth at the G-STAR to promote their products to the global market.
À̹ÌÁö È®´ë Visitors enjoy e-sports at the Korea"s biggest game show G-STAR 2018 in Busan. [Photo by Bexco]
The state program sponsored by Google aims to support promising companies that have been in operation for three to seven years to help them survive the so-called ¡®death valley¡¯, a term referring to the difficulty in generating positive cash flows in the early stage of business.
¡°It is positive that Google doesn¡¯t support big game companies but small ones because it is so hard for indie games to be exposed to wide consumers,¡± said Kim Hyo-taek, chief executive of Growing Seeds Corp., a learning content developer founded in 2012. The company that provides ¡®MazM: The Phantom of the Opera¡¯, a mobile game based on Gaston Leroux¡¯s novel, has only 12 employees.
¡°The consulting from the world¡¯s largest game platform Google Play was a huge help for small game companies like us to advance into overseas markets,¡± said Park Sung-eun, CEO of Super Planet.
By Lee Duk-joo and Choi Mira
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]