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KITA Held “Startup Pivoting Hackathon” Final
Competition
- KITA bridged startups and
external developers...
Supported discovery of new
business models utilizing eye tracking, extended reality (XR), game user data,
etc.-
The Korea International Trade Association (Chairman:
Christopher Koo) wrapped up one-month-long ‘Startup Business Model Pivoting
Hackathon’ with its final round held online on March 23rd.
This hackathon was designed to seek new business
models and innovative services that utilize ▲ user eye tracking technology, ▲
augmented reality (AR) & virtual reality (VR), and ▲ behavior analysis of
game players developed by three startups: Visual Camp, Salin, and Tentu Play.
The final round of the competition took place contactless online and revealed
unique services and solutions devised by 11 teams that made through document
screening and a preliminary round of competition, which all began in February.
The grand prizes went to three teams named 'Freshmen',
'Renaissance', and 'Team Mask'. The winners received certificates of merit
granted by the Korea International Trade Association and some prize money. The
association will provide additional benefits such as employment offer to the winners
when they choose to work with those three startups in the future.
The Flashman team, the grand prize winner in the user
eye tracking technology category, received a high score for presenting a high
quality mobile game service. The Renaissance team, the winner in the augmented
reality and virtual reality technology category, received favorable reviews for
its virtual space exhibition platform. Team Mask won the grand prize in the
game user behavior analysis category by introducing an advertisement brokerage
service tailored to game users.
CEO Park Jae-seung of Visual Camp said, “There were a
lot of good ideas to consider as new businesses, such as games using gaze,
analysis of reading habits, and English reading comprehension skills,” and
added, "For some of the ideas, although they didn't win a prize, we will
work with them as a separate project to develop a new business model."
Kim Myeon-soo, CEO of Tento Play, said, "Finding
a field where the company's core technology can be properly utilized is a
critical issue which determines the company's fate. Through this hackathon, we
were able to discover a new business field.” He also stated, “It was a great
help because through the hackathon we were able to conduct market research and
apply experimental technology for pivoting which will diversify and expand
business fields.
Lee Dong-ki, head of Innovation and Startup Group of
the Korea International Trade Association, said, “The existing open innovation
was designed for large and medium-sized companies to find startups with
innovative services. This hackathon was meaningful as it arranged cooperation
with university students and external developers to expand the core
technologies and services of startups,” and added, “We will continue to strive
for scale-up of startups and vitalization of the ecosystem in the future.”
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