Who would dare to come forward to try estimating big data technology’s growth potential
In a situation where the US, the global leader in big data technology, has been witnessing devices that use the Internet of Things (IoT) gushing out data and even predictive analytics solutions coming out for all the industries, no one would underestimate the possibility of big data technology making a big impact across industries, not to mention the IT (information technology) industry
Big data technology, which has basked in attention as the driving force behind the 21stcentury’s industrial revolution, is taking a step forward to deal with a wider range of issues, from corporate business to overarching social issues, such as medicine, welfare, crime prevention, etc. Thus, now is the time to present a clear-cut vision and workable solutions for turning big data technology into tangible business results.
The S. Korean database market grew 7.5% y-o-y to about KRW 11.65 trillion, gaining a firm foothold in the global database market, which is valued at approximately KRW 100 trillion. The share of home-grown solutions in the DBMS (database management system) segment of the Korean database industry, which has been more heavily dominated by foreign-made solutions than any other segment, hit an all-time high of 10.4%, the second largest after US-made solutions.
The thing that powers up Korea in the 21stcentury is data.
Seo Kang-soo, President of the Korea Database Agency (KODB), underscored the significance of data as a new growth engine for the Korean economy by saying, “Data will become the world’s newfound natural resource. If someone should ask me in the distant future what resources had driven the Korean economy in the 21stcentury, my answer would be “data.”
What makes data very intriguing is that it can be widely utilized across all sectors and data utilization can also make a huge difference. For instance, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - which had seen the coffers of the US government dwindling owing to a spike in financial crimes, such as tax evasion or tax fraud, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis - succeeded in stunting growth in tax evasions and unnecessary tax rebates by capitalizing on fraud detection systems relying on data analytics, analyses of social networks and data integration and mining.
“The mobile industry is providing people with something somewhat chaotic but exciting. In the fledgling big data market, there is neither obvious first-place finisher nor last-place finisher at the moment. Therefore, leveraging our vast pool of big data, tenacious propensity and creativity, we have to endeavor to take the lead in the global big data market,” said President Seo. According to him, it is important for the nation to make a preemptive move to spearhead the global database market since the market is forecast to continue its steep upward trajectory, backed by growth in the importance of cloud computing, big data technology, IoT and mobile technology.
As a matter of fact, the US is the undeniable leader which is far ahead of others in the global database market. However, there are some segments where Korean companies have been making a good showing. Korean companies have outshined their US counterparts in the DBMS segment and are fast closing the gap with their US counterparts in the solution, services and consulting segments of the database market.
China appreciate value of DB Korea market
China was quick in cottoning on to the growth potential of S. Korea’s ever-growing database industry. Since 2011, China has sunk approximately KRW 10 trillion into the four major software sectors - databases, operating systems, office suites and security - to wean itself off its dependence on US-made software, only to stop short of garnering tangible results. As a result, China has been seeking close cooperation with South Korea. At the request of China, President Seo flew to Beijing last May to sign an MoU with Tsinghua University. And in August of last year, President Seo and representative from Korean providers of database solutions, such as Ware Valley, Tibero and FORCS, participated in a variety of events (e.g. Korea-China Joint Database Technology Cooperation Seminar) in Harbin, therefore raising Korean database companies’ profile in China.
During his visit to China, President Seo also met with TEAMSUN (a Chinese SI (system integration) company) to explore the possibility of jointly developing database solutions and the two sides agreed to close academic cooperation in the form of Korea-China joint academic seminars. As a result, Korea-Chine Database Technology Cooperation Forum is to be held in Jeju on April 28-30.
As such, the KODB is poised to rev up Korean database companies’ entry into the Chinese market by bolstering Korea-China ties though brisk exchanges. Furthermore, the KODB is to vigorously assist leading Korea-based database management system vendors, like ENCORE, Ware Valley and Altibase (which have already entered Asian, European and US markets), in finding a new market for their products. .
KODB, Attaching Wings to Korea Big Data
While supporting Korean companies’ forays into overseas market, the KODB is also keen on nurturing big data experts, who can live up to the big data era’s high expectations. In collaboration with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of South Korea, the KODB has been running Big Data Academy, a training program designed to nurture technical experts on big data technology through field-oriented, practical training, as well as professional big data analysts, who are expert at formatted or unformatted data mining, have an understanding of statistical visualization and can support scientific decision making processes.
Nearly 200 big data experts have already graduated from this 12-week program, which is comprised of prior education, collective training, project execution and workshops. Big Data Academy produces 100 big data experts each year in each of its two courses, i.e. big data technology and analysis, thus building a future for the Korean database industry.
Moving beyond solely producing big data experts, the KODB also mounts events, such as Big Data Job Concert, Big Data Technology Insight Seminar and professor training, with a view to motivating and mentoring college students, who hope to build their careers in the big data industry.
What’s more, the KODB has teamed up with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning in pushing for “DB stars,” a data-based business incubation program that serves as a one-stop shop for start-up support. Through DB stars, brilliant ideas are discovered, developed, commercialized and support for marketing, investment and follow-up management is also on offer.
DB stars receives ideas from SMEs, adults, college students, etc. and narrows the entries down to 13 finalists, which will be turned into sophisticated services. Support for promotions and financing needed to help the sophisticated services make a soft landing in the market are also available. To top it off, the 13 winners are also offered assistance with obtaining the data needed for developing their ideas into a business. They can go to “dbstore” (www.dbstore.or.kr), the database distribution and brokerage site run by the KODB, to ask how to find specific data or receive data brokerage services. It is interesting that DB stars has adopted a fail-proof selection system that ensures ‘there will be eliminations but no failures.’
Moreover, a mentor group, consisting of successful Korean businesspeople, including Kim Haw-soo (CEO of Jobkorea Co., Ltd.) and Kim Dong-sik (CEO of Kweather (a Korean provider of weather services), will guide the winners through how to discover new business models and M&A and investment opportunities, thereby contributing to the nation’s promotion of mutually beneficial cooperation between large companies and start-ups in the industry
At the moment, there is one downside to the nation’s use of data. Public institutions and large online portals have been providing overlapping data servings, resultantly crimping corporate management. Hence President Seo emphasized that disclosure and creative use of data should come before everything else. To that end, the KODB plans to press ahead with a plan aimed to lay the groundwork for data production and collection, support data processing and integration and facilitate industrialization of databases. The plan is anticipated to build a streamlined public-private database distribution network, strengthen the private sector’s competitiveness and form a virtuous cycle in the database ecosystem by expediting the creation of new markets.
Following the declaration of the Government 3.0 vision (with a focus on making more public data open to the public), the S. Korean government has been working on the development of the Korean big data sector. Though numerous institutions are backing up the government’s such efforts, the KODB is the only agency that is committed to taking the domestic database industry to new heights. Accordingly, the KODB is set to lay the foundation for economic growth and industrial development by considerably enlarging the nation’s pool of data experts and dividing its business mainly into three fronts: nurturing experts on databases, database quality control and discovery of new businesses based on data utilization. Besides, making sure that the private sector actually profit from utilizing disclosed public data, the KODB will play a pivotal role in upgrading the Korean economy and the lives of ordinary people so as to catapult the nation into the 5thlargest in the global database market.
