by ANDREW SALMON
Seoul has led the global regulatory charge against Google and Apple and has local champ Kakao in its sights
Daniel Tudor is a cheerful man and he has every reason to be: The South Korean government has, simply by passing a piece of legislation, made him 15% richer.
“Of course, I am happy,” said Tudor, a Seoul-based British expatriate entrepreneur as he discussed the recent enactment of Seoul’s so-called Anti-Google Law. “It will benefit my company.”
Tudor is the CEO and co-founder of Kokkiri (“Elephant”) a meditation app firm that boasts 400,000 users. Prior to the passage of the new law – in fact, a revision to an existing act – his firm, like all other app developers, was required to pay 15% of sales in commission to Apple and Google.
No more. App developers in South Korea, even if they run on Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, can henceforth use their own, or third-party payment systems. That means no more commissions to the big boys, and bigger margins for the little guys.
The National Assembly’s action has been happily received by Tudor and his ilk – the wave of start-up entrepreneurs that the last two Seoul governments have enthusiastically boosted with multiple policies, including freed-up finance, eased loan conditions, incubation assistance and consulting.
And as the first major economy to take such action against the two global platform giants, South Korea’s action has no doubt provided food for thought for lawmakers and regulators in other parts of the world.
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