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It appears that the smartphone epidemic has created a new type of entrepreneur in mobile applications, or apps, developers. The country’s number of creative one-man enterprises increased sharply last year, government figures show, on the strength of the explosion in mobile Internet devices and content.
According to the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA), the nation’s one-man enterprises reached 235,000 in 2010, up 15.7 percent from the preceding year, and the number accounts for about 1 percent of the economically active population. Standalone creative enterprises are one-person companies that generate or exploit knowledge and information.
The SMBA attributed the surge to the rapidly growing mobile content market, affected by influx of smartphone, and the government’s promotion to create youth’s start-ups.
Apple’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S have been megahit products since their release in late 2009 and early 2010, respectively.
The number of iPhone users in Korea reached 2 million Sunday and Galaxy S’s sales have also hit 2 million, with an estimated 7 million smartphone users in the country.
Thanks to the success of high-tech gadgets, the application market has been fast growing, which has resulted in a large number of people rushing to exploit the lucrative area.
“The number of people who want to develop applications has been on the increase,” said an instructor of a local information technology educational institution, which offers an education service on applications.
“Those who are familiar with computer programming can develop an application after a one-month course.”
The SMBA noted that one-man creative enterprises engaged in media and information technology services, including mobile services represented 23.1 percent of the total in 2010, up from 14 percent in 2009.
The government is set to continue helping people to start up one-man creative enterprises.
The SMBA plans to select 14 additional Web App Creation Centers to meet the rising demand in the mobile content and education sector. Last year, it picked 11 centers nationwide, primarily at colleges and universities.
The designated sites will offer educational programs, such as a basic developer course and specialist developer course, for the general public interested in applications, so that they can develop products independently.
In addition, it opened a global app support center to help those who develop a competitive application but cannot afford overseas marketing with funds totaling 2.7 billion won.
The report also said that more than 60 percent of those who established one-man creative enterprises had earned bachelor’s degrees or higher academic qualifications.
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