INTERVIEW 'One Asia Media aims to connect biz between Korea, US'

By Baek Byung-yeul

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic this year has made people understand how interconnected we are and the importance of global value chains as global trade has suffered a severe decline.

Many industry analysts forecast the unilateral trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump are not likely to be repeated under President-elect Joe Biden, and Hwang Jong-duck, CEO and president of One Asia Media, agreed that global value chains will see an upswing after the pandemic.

Hwang, an expert specialized in connecting businesses between Korea and the United States, added that the prolonged crisis caused by the virus pandemic will be resolved in the long run, and now is the time to prepare for multilateral business cooperation in the post-pandemic period.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our way of life completely. The proliferation of contactless services has caused technological advances to affect us more closely and vividly. As mentioned earlier, most technological developments have been facilitated by U.S. startups. I am sure we will overcome the current coronavirus crisis. Therefore, it is very important to prepare for post-pandemic business opportunities,” Hwang told The Korea Times during a recent interview.

The CEO, who formerly worked as a journalist at prominent newspapers here such as the Hankook Ilbo and the Maeil Business Newspaper, considers himself a marketing-oriented accelerator, specialized in planning conferences created by news media. He is also in charge of building bridges between conference audiences and speakers, developing businesses and attracting investments.

Hwang established One Asia Media in 2016 in a bid to play a bridging role connecting firms based in Asia and the U.S.

“Since the 2008 global financial crisis, collaboration and consolidation among industries have been actively promoted in new growth-oriented nations. At that time, China grew to become the world's factory and acted as a financial hub that plays a key role in making investments into innovative ideas in the world. Against this backdrop, Korea, which played a role as a bridge in the world's economic and industrial value chain, emerged as a main player in helping U.S.-based innovative startups make inroads into Northeast Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and China, as well as into Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and others promoting active exchanges with Korea,” Hwang said.

“In connection with this, One Asia Media was established to offer one-stop services not only in PR, marketing and government relations, but also in connecting them to local companies and in attracting mega investments from China.”

In conjunction with Money Today, a Korea-based business newspaper, Hwang also launched the global conference K.E.Y. Platform. Since 2013, he has acted as a general planner and producer for the K.E.Y. Platform, which serves to create and link innovative ideas to businesses.

The annual global conference has featured industry officials; high-ranking government officials; startup operators running innovative businesses; global think tanks; and prominent academics, numbering about 2,000 who gather together every year. Also, about 50 speakers from the U.S., Japan, China and Europe have taken part in the event every year.

“The K.E.Y. Platform has introduced about 1,000 innovative cases from the U.S. and other countries. At the request of renowned participants, the marketing-based accelerator platform One Asia Media was established in September 2016 and has since operated successfully,” Hwang explained.

Speaking about possible business opportunities in the post-pandemic era, One Asia Media plans to focus on emerging business categories such as non-face-to-face services, healthcare and information security.

“A diversity of working tools for working in a contact-free environment and improving productivity has been developed and thereby can be introduced to nations in Asia including Korea. In the sphere of healthcare, products such as masks, gloves and test kits were in high demand from all over the world after the virus outbreak, creating big opportunities for win-win collaborations between Korea and the U.S.,” Hwang said.

“In the post-pandemic era, the importance of corporate security will also be increased. Taking into account China's cyberattacks recently reported by U.S. media, security issues are expected to pose a great threat to businesses around the world. Therefore, One Asia plans to implement a diversity of promotions and PR activities, holding various events. This is projected to serve as significant opportunities for Korean and U.S. companies to grow further.”

To give a specific example of playing a bridge role between firms based in different regions, Hwang said: “One Asia Media is already discussing with retailers in key European nations to export medial suppliers with superior quality made by Korean firms. We are also collaborating with major medical retailers in the U.S. to export advanced medical goods made in the U.S., as well as quarantine products made by Korean companies.”

When asked about his future plans as the head of One Asia Media, Hwang said he will focus more on helping U.S. startups advance into the Korean market as well as other countries.

“One Asia has been headquartered in the U.S., while its operation has been mainly conducted in Korea. It's because our goal was to help U.S.-based firms advance into Korea. Moreover, there was the need to attract investments from China. However, in the current circumstances where it is difficult to effectively trade with China, we plan to increase paid-in-capital and employment for the headquarters. In Los Angeles where our headquarters is located, we will directly conduct our business operations. To this end, we plan to increase capital by $2 million, employing consultants, marketing experts and venture capitalists numbering a total of 10 in 2021,” Hwang said.