Venture businesses get on right track in number, sales

By Choi Sung-jin

The number of venture businesses in Korea surpassed 30,000 last year, a recent survey showed. Venture companies with annual sales of 100 billion won ($85.4 million) or more, the “star ventures,” also grew to 460.

Their aggregate sales rose to 214.6 trillion won, approaching the Samsung Group’s yearly turnover of 248 trillion won, and accounting for 14.5 percent of the nation’s GDP of 1,485 trillion won, according to the survey by the Small and Medium Business Administration and the Korea Venture Business Association.

“Given the sales of the SK Group and Hyundai Automotive Group remained at 165 trillion won and 158 trillion won, respectively, this performance shows venture businesses are emerging as a new protagonist in economic growth,” an official at SMBA said.

Per-company sales increased 11.2 percent, from 6.47 billion won in 2013 to 7.19 billion won last year, with their growth hovering above the comparable increases of 4.4 percent for small and medium enterprises, and -0.4 percent for large businesses, the survey report said, adding that such a trend has continued for six consecutive years. Per-company operating profit and net profit also grew 14.9 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Ventures that develop software programs showed particularly high sales growth of 39.2 percent, followed by energy-medicine (16 percent) and communication-broadcasting (11.8 percent). The report attributed software developers’ robust performance to the reinvigoration of industries related to mobile apps amid the overall economic slump.

Employees at venture businesses were estimated to total 717,000, or 4.7 percent of the total workforce, which stood at 15.34 million as of 2013. The number of workers per company was 24, on average, up 6.2 percent from 2103, and 6.2 times higher than the average of 3.9 workers hired by small and midsize firms, it said.