Korea-China cultural joint strategies at a glance

"Mr. Go" is a movie released in 2013, which is about a gorilla of a circus in China coming to Korea to become a professional baseball player. To enter the Chinese market based on the animal special effect technology used in the movie, director Kim Yong-hwa set up Dexter Studios in Shanghai in 2014 and raised 20 million dollars in the ensuing year from Chinese venture capitalists. Dexter’s market capitalization is around 180 billion won, or 153 million U.S. dollars, as of now, after winning orders for special effects in Chinese movies such as "Monkey King" and "Kung Fu Yoga."

Dexter is a good example that shows explosive synergy effects when Korea and China meet in cultural content and IT. While Chinese capital used to import content made in Korea, human resources, capital and technology of the two countries are now involving into a multinational company beyond borders.

The 2016 Korea-China CEO Forum, co-hosted by The Dong-A Ilbo, Channel A and China’s prestigious Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), will be a venue for discussions on how to innovate where both Korea and Chinese companies can grow together in ICT, the Internet, and cultural content like the case. This event will be a joint session of the Dong-A Business Forum 2016, which will start at noon and ends at 4 p.m. This year, in particular, influential Chinese businessmen such as Xe Tao, vice president of the Spearhead Group, and iDreamSky Technology's CEO Michael Xiangyu Chen will attend the forum.

The Spearhead Group is China’s largest offline marketing service provider, expanding its presence in the online ad market. iDreamsky is one of three Chinese game companies and was listed in NASDAQ in 2014. Vice President Xe and President Cheon will share their knowhow with participants as they flourish in the highly competitive Chinese cultural content market. CKGSB Founding Dean Xiang Being will give a special lecture on China and the world economy.

Korean panelists will include Daumsoft Vice President Song Gil-young, Pan Entertainment Chairman Park Yeong-seok and Alipay Korea CEO Jeong Won-sik. Song will analyze Chinese consumption patterns and talk about how to use them while Jeong will talk about how to link China’s fintech to the Korean market.

조진서기자 cjs@donga.com