The KIICA (Korea ICT International Cooperation Agency) has selected ‘Promising IT Exporters’ in order to propose new business models and encourage small and medium companies by awarding a selected number of IT companies that have achieved outstanding technology development and business management performance as the new leaders in the knowledge industry of the 21st century.

The award went to a total of five companies including Tomato LSI (Export Award), TeraVision (Overseas Marketing Award), Xeno (IT Marketing Award), Bluebird Soft (New Technology Development Award), and I-ON Communications (Management Innovation Award).

The award winning companies were given the KIICA Medal well as the opportunity to be the first to participate in overseas marketing projects. They will also be provided with overseas advertising services through the global marketing website, www.dynamicitkorea.or.kr.

The Export Award winner Tomato LSI (www.tomatolsi.com) has been specializing in semiconductor since November 1999. As the developer of DDI (Display Driver IC) for mobile phones, PMP and other small/medium-sized mobile devices as well as large electronic products like notebook computers, Tomato LSI has been contributing to the development of the digital industry. The proportion of the experts in technical engineering and marketing is over 90% of the total employee. Therefore, Tomato LSI consists of people who have more than 10 years of experience in each field and the people can technically share full support with each other. With an effective sales network, Tomato LSI has even brought its business to foreign markets in Japan, China, Taiwan and etc. The company has branch offices in Taipei, Taiwan, Shenzhen, China and Tokyo, Japan, and also several representatives.

The Overseas Marketing Award winner TeraVision (www.teravision.co.kr) has been supplying color TV designs and kits since July 2001. While both its main office and R&D center are based in Korea, TeraVision also has an IPO in Shenzhen, China. The company strives to become a global player through close ties with global logistics service providers. TeraVision has been exporting its products and services to India, Iran and Vietnam since 2001, and is currently tapping into new markets like Argentina, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia.

The IT Marketing Award winner Xeno (www.xenoinfo.com) was established in November 2000. The company was among the first to introduce automation systems for webcasting, which was a relatively new concept at the time for Internet broadcasting. Since then, Xeno has been playing a leading role in the development of personal broadcasting solutions, multimedia copyright management system and integrated Internet broadcasting systems. Some of its main solutions include ‘Xeno IB Station’ for automated Internet broadcasting, ‘EncoMagic&Magic DRM’ for personal Internet broadcasting, ‘Xeno Weblog’ for Internet web log analysis, and ‘X-Bro Series’ for integrated mobile Internet broadcasting.

The New Technology Development Award winner Bluebird Soft (www.bluebird.co.kr) has been the leading supplier of industrial PDAs in Korea. In December last year, the company launched an ultra-slim PDA called ‘BM-300’. Along with a wide range of industrial PDAs including bar code PDAs, Bluebird Soft has also introduced a number of personal PDAs such as PDA phones and DMB PDAs. It also develops and sells RFID readers and other core components. Bluebird Soft has a global sales network covering most of major cities of the world.

Finally, the Management Innovation Award winner I-ON Communications (www.i-on.net) has been specializing in content management systems since June 1998. With a market share of 70%, the company remains unchallenged in Korea. Its technology is widely recognized in Japan as well, as there were more than 100 Japanese companies using its systems in early last year. I-ON Communications is currently planning to launch its products in the US, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China early this year, and gradually become a global software developer. I-ON Communications plans and develops all its technologies according to international standards. Based on its technological competitiveness, I-ON Communications obtained the GS (Good Software) mark for its I-ON Content Server4 and NET (New Excellent Technology) mark for its next-generation product iCAFE (I-ON Content Application Framework & Engine) for MCM (Mobile Content Management), and gained global recognition for the reliability and safety of its products.

Source: IT Korea journal January~February 2007 Cover Story 11

            "KIICA List of Promising IT Exporters Reported" by Woosung Shim (wsung@ittn.co.kr)