When considering overseas market expansion, countries with a sizeable population and consumers with high purchasing power offer abundant business opportunities. Especially in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the market has high growth potential with a large population of over 670 million people and an average annual economic growth of about 5%. However, overseas expansion without careful consideration and planning may amplify the companies’ risks and result in a crisis.
Established in 2019, KILSA Korea offers a comprehensive market analysis before companies expand into new markets. KILSA also provides consulting services and identifies sales channels for the companies’ post-market entry. Featuring an ecosystem of clients and partners, Mr Kevin Kwon Oh-Sung, Country Director of KILSA Korea, a subsidiary of KILSA Global, introduced KILSA’s business operations and strategic collaborations to the Head of Corporation at Seoul Business Agency (SBA), Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Every year, KILSA Global helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups to enter overseas markets, said Mr Kwon. Generally, it takes about 3 years after the business’ initial expansion to generate sales, and the cost incurred over the three years is estimated at a hefty sum of 500 million won (SGD$689.9 million). Since the invested capital may not guarantee sales or results, most SMEs are reluctant to expand internationally.
“It’s regretful that companies with high potential and competency are hesitant to expand overseas. Previously, services that support companies entering into international markets focused on communicating information or administrative support such as market research and consulting for market entry strategy. Hence, KILSA Global emerged as a platform to help with business development – A core determining factor between success and failure of the overseas expansion,” said Mr Kwon.
“For example, when Company A collaborates with KILSA Global to enter the Southeast Asian market, we ascertain if it’s feasible for the company to enter the market and identify the countries with the most business opportunities. Then, we establish a market entry strategy based on detailed market research and proceed to lead the business development activities,” he added. “Jointly with our KILSA local team, we strategise and deploy sales and marketing activities, discover partner companies, build networks, attract investments, and secure projects.”.
While Korean companies often associate overseas expansion with product sales, KILSA offers value-adding services such as research and development (R&D) and localisation to grow the business. Pillared by our headquarters in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, the KILSA team work together to help companies to embrace localisation for their overseas expansion. Drawing insights from our local experts, we have the experience and agility to ensure that the overseas expansion plans comply with the country-specific laws and regulations, especially sensitive industries like FinTech.
Fuelled by the success of the Korean wave, Korean conglomerates enjoy widespread recognition and brand awareness amongst Southeast Asian consumers. Therefore, SMEs and start-ups in Korea can tap on KILSA Global’s localisation capabilities to develop a country-specific operating model and accelerate international growth.
For SMEs and start-ups considering overseas expansion, the goal is to strengthen capabilities by collaborating with a local partner to anchor the business in a foreign market. The companies should improve the quality of their product and services and adopt localisation so as to increase sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, the company must secure a stable profit model and investment funds in Korea to withstand the impact of an overseas expansion where its resources and capacity will be put under enormous strain. Lastly, the international expansion should be backed by the management’s commitment to drive decisions and meet with overseas partner companies or governments.
Partnering with KILSA Global, FATOS is a Korean Technology company that entered the Singaporean market in 2020. FATOS leverages its mapping technology to create low-cost, accurate, and high-precision maps with algorithms. With a growing demand in Southeast Asia for dynamic mapping technology, KILSA Korea facilitated the collaboration and the Singapore team supported localisation needs and business development activities so that FATOS can focus on developing its ecosystem of Transportation Intelligence, including real-time maps and route planning.
Thus far, FATOS has established a strong market presence in Singapore and signed a mutual cooperation agreement with a Singapore Public Statutory Board. FATOS, being the first South Korean technology company, expanded their location-based solutions to a new domain – Social Service sector. FATOS is also embarking towards building a future mobility system in Singapore and KILSA Global is looking forward to unlocking technology and partnerships milestones for FATOS in Southeast Asia.
As we stride into the second half of 2022, KILSA Global is gearing up for more collaboration opportunities, and working with partner institutions to help companies realise the companies’ full potential. In particular, KILSA is developing an algorithm to generate data reports of companies and overseas markets and customise an overseas market-entry strategy for Korean companies. Moreover, KILSA is working on a business financing plan to empower small-scale start-ups for international expansion, possibly in major overseas markets such as Europe and North America as well as Southeast Asia. Lastly, KILSA will also strengthen its partnership with the Seoul Business Agency (SBA) to help more Korean SMEs and start-ups to advance overseas.
Article Extracted from: Naver
