- Updated 2025.3.18 16:50
- All Articles
-
member
icon
-
facebook
cursor
-
twitter
cursor
|
CommunityNews |
Big money, big jobs come Jeju’s wayMore companies eye the island as the best location for their headquarters |
|
| |
 |
|
| ▲ May Kim, managing director of NXC Corporation. Photo by Jean K. Min |
May Kim, managing director of NXC Corporation, the holding company of Nexon (Korea’s largest online game house) and other affiliates, was traveling Jeju some 10 years ago when she approached a young local for direction.
She feared that she may not understand his Jeju dialect entirely, but to her surprise he talked like a Seoulite, guiding her with perfectly passable standard Korean. The memory has stayed with her since, until NXC Corporation, her new employer, asked her to scout for a location to establish the company’s first call center outside Seoul.
The favorite city for call centers among Korean companies is Daejeon. Located in the middle of South Korea, its residents are well-known for their modesty and calm temper. These are characteristics essential for customer service representatives. Daejeon was an obvious choice for the company initially, but she shared her experience with some skeptical executives, persuading them that the islanders are actually bi-lingual, speaking Jeju dialect among themselves and able to switch to standard Korean instantly when required.
Contrary to the psychological distance ingrained in the people’s mind, Jeju is not as far from Seoul as it seems, Kim said. “We can fly faster to Jeju, while driving to Daejeon could take up to four hours in the peak hours.”
Nexon Networks, the company’s customer service arm, opened its Jeju office in August 2009 and currently employs some 100 islanders out of its estimated 300 service agents. On Dec. 20 the company announced that it had moved its head office from Seoul to Jeju.
In 2010, online games have been big business. Nexon Corporation projected last May that it will meet the target of 1 trillion won in combined revenue this year. NC Soft, Nexon's domestic rival announced last week that the company will launch the ninth baseball team in Korea, the first such company to do so in the Korean professional baseball league, dominated by top chaebols such as Samsung, LG and KIA Motors.
The possibility of hosting a 1-trillion-won-a-year company in Jeju is big news for the islanders, who hope to see their home evolve into a Mecca of Korea’s green economy. This potential, coupled with the planned relocation to Jeju of Daum, the second largest online portal in Korea, suggests that Jeju may someday be called Korea’s Silicon Valley or Sophia Antipolis if the company’s 1,000 game developers settle down to Jeju.
Kim cautions, however, that unlike Daum, Nexon has no master plan to relocate its main game developing arm to Jeju anytime soon. Though Kim Jeong Ju, Nexon’s founder, proposed in 2007 to gradually move the company’s key functions to Jeju, eventual relocation will be decided by top management and employees of each affiliate, Kim said.
For the island’s officials, who hope to see the cluster of environment-friendly IT industry to bloom in Jeju soon, Nexon’s attitude of “let it be” might look rather frustrating. Kim hinted, however, that Nexon will soon open a game development studio in Jeju that will employ between 200 to 300 developers. Inside its Jeju office, to be built near Jeju Halla Arboretum, Nexon will house a museum themed after its online game characters.
Nexon's online arcade games such as Kart Rider and Maple Story are popular among younger players whereas Lineage, the top online game of NC Soft, its archrival serves mostly adult players with more punch on graphic visual and violent content. To alleviate the growing concern of Korean parents about worsening online game addiction of teens, the company’s key customers, Nexon plans to run a retreat center in the Jeju office, Kim said.There students on a school excursion to Jeju could relax and learn about some etiquette in cyberspace.
Kim lamented that there is no other Korean city except for Seoul that is well-known outside the country, adding that Jeju has some good potential to grow as another Korean city worthy of international recognition. In fact, Jeju has been the fastest growing city in Korea in the past 10 years, Kim noted.
Whether Nexon puts the full weight of its billion-dollar international brand on the island any time soon remains to be seen. However, Nexon’s presence on the island could have further effects. It may have been intended as a conduit to attract external brains and resources to Jeju, but it is also a channel for the islanders to march forward to the world using the company’s global platform. Either way, Jeju wins.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ⓒ Jeju Weekly 2009 (http://www.jejuweekly.net)
All materials on this site are protected under the Korean Copyright Law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published without the prior consent of Jeju Weekly. |
|
|
|
|
| Jeju-Asia's No.1 for Cruise |
|
|
|
Title:The jeju Weekly(제주위클리) | Mail to editor@jejuweekly.net | Phone: +82-64-724-7776 Fax: +82-64-724-7796
#503, 36-1, Seogwang-ro, Jeju-si, Jeju-do, Korea, 63148
Registration Number: Jeju, Ah01158(제주,아01158) | Date of Registration: November 10,2022 | Publisher&Editor : Hee Tak Ko | Youth policy: Hee Tak Ko
Copyright ⓒ 2009 All materials on this site are protected under the Korean Copyright Law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published
without the prior consent of jeju weekly.com.
|
