Yang-Hyun Cho: Entrepreneurship

For me, entrepreneurship begins with sensing changes in the times, identifying problems, and redefining the contradictions within them. It has been a process of repeatedly searching for solutions through a different frame of thinking than before.

Business opportunities lie at the boundaries of major changes in technology and the social environment. My first challenge was with Hangame Japan.

In 2000, with the broadband era on the horizon, I founded Hangame Japan and distributed a wide variety of free games as a portal. However, while charging for each game creates a viable revenue model, it makes it difficult to attract people. Making them free attracts people, but revenue is scarce. To resolve this contradiction, I found a way to keep the games free while charging for avatar items, growing it into Japan's number one game portal.

My next entrepreneurial challenge was Cocone. The essence of mobile is communication, and it is the most personalized device. Since a portal-style approach like that of a PC is not suitable, I added connection-like elements where individuals connect and focused on highly personalized, character-driven content. As a result, we were able to pioneer the CCP (Character Coordinating Play) genre, which is supported by many users.

Entrepreneurship has the power to change the world. The word "entrepreneurship" (kigyo) is not enough if it only means starting a company. The innovation required to give rise to that "enterprise" (gyo) is what is important.

Whether it is a service, a product, or an organization, it is about creating something that has never existed before and making a positive impact on people and society. This is what it means to be an entrepreneur. To create unprecedented innovation, one must correctly define things and current problems, and seek solutions with flexible thinking and the power to execute. Consequently, achieving financial results is the essence of entrepreneurship and the way a company should be.

It has been 20 years since the internet began to spread in Japan. Now, it has permeated our lives to the point where there is no boundary between online and offline. Recently, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a fusion of existing industries with new technologies such as AI, IoT, and O2O, has begun.

The world is becoming connected with an unprecedented amount of information and technology. It is precisely because we live in such an era that the value of entrepreneurship is increasing. Students of Keio! Let us practice entrepreneurship and start new ventures.