Cryptocurrency, blockchain and the casting industry — South Korea
Blockchain, cryptocurrency and the casting industry, these are all relevant to iCasting. As iCasting, we are now in the process of being active on an international level, with our own iCasting platform and our own Talent Token.
This time, we will dive into an important Asian country. The country where K-Pop music has developed itself into a worldwide known term and the country that is the third largest digital currency market in the world, South Korea.
Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology
According to information provided by Business Insider, South Korea has emerged as one of the top markets for cryptocurrencies. A third of all Bitcoin trades that occurred were done by South Koreans.
There have been various regulations on cryptocurrency in South Korea. The country forbids the collection of money with the help of ICOs up to the present day and limits the way in which the digital currencies can be invested. In addition, anyone who wants to trade in cryptocurrency via South Korean banks must have the South Korean nationality and be over eighteen years old. One must use their real name if they want to deposit money to buy more Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. Trading anonymously within the country is forbidden. Another regulation example is the prohibition for government officials to own any forms of cryptocurrency.
Technologically advanced countries, such as South Korea, must remain involved in order to continue making progress. The country also wants to participate at a high level in the area of blockchain and cryptocurrency.
The Korean financial watchdog Financial Services Commission (FSC) urged the government last week to speed up its approval of the first cryptocurrency law. This would allow the crypto market to be regulated with stricter but more comprehensive regulatory frameworks that protect investors and promote the growth of startups in the blockchain industry.
Recently, the South Korean government has announced new regulations where crypto exchanges are now recognized as legally regulated financial institutions. Another announcement is that the government is in the process of lifting the ICO ban. The Ministry of Finance of South Korea reported their plans, in a press release, to invest 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in its “growth through innovation” program. The amount of 5 trillion won is intended for eight different sectors in IT including self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain technology.
South Korea has started giving a 6-month training to turn 42 people interested into “blockchain specialists”, according to a report in local media from South Korea.
The blockchain economy in South Korea is growing fast and becoming very popular. This makes it a necessity for the South Korean government to house specialists of the blockchain technology. The training aims to increase the availability of skilled professionals in the fast-growing blockchain economy in this country.
The course is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Technology and ICT, the Korean Standards Association (KSA) and the Hong Kong-based blockchain and Internet of Things, Waltonchain. The students can start immediately, with a job guarantee, after they have finished the course in January 2019.
According to Waltonchain, a one-stop support will be offered for starting companies and employees, but also for the education for the professional training of the employees. Waltonchain wants to build a healthy blockchain ecosystem to further strengthen it within the country.
Soft Power — South Korea
Before we start discussing the Korean Soft Power, we will first give a definition:
‘’Soft Power is the use of a country’s cultural and economic influence to persuade other countries to do something, rather than the use of military power’’ — Cambridge Dictionary
South Korea has a growing Soft Power when seeking to raise its international profile and influence. The country’s Soft Power has increased their appeal and attraction of its popular culture. The success of the South Korean cultural wave (Hallyu), transmitted through their TV dramas and other forms of popular culture. This resulted in the country painting a positive image of their national culture and a positive international standing.
Nowadays, South Korea’s popular culture has reached a global level. It started in East Asia, and later on spread to South and Central Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, North and South America, and Europe. The rise of Korean popular culture on an international level can be shown best by the thrilling success of the Korean singer PSY and his song: “Gangnam Style,”. In 2012, it became a global hit and even set an all-time record of — now — more than 3 billion YouTube views.
The growing popularity of Korean popular culture around the world, facilitated by, for example, YouTube and other social media, is remarkable. Now, a popular culture of a non-Western country is making meaningful advance into the world’s cultural market, which has often been dominated by Western countries, such as the United States.
Casting Industry in South Korea
There are many talents that need to be discovered in South Korea. As said before, Korean Pop (K-Pop) has become popular not only in South Korea, but also worldwide. However, Korean Pop is just a portion of active talents in South Korea. Not only talents who are already active in this segment, but other talents such as models, actors and other artists are available as talents on the South Korean market.
There is a pool of talents available in South Korea, but an important issue is that there are only a few large casting agencies who focus on the (semi)-professional talents, which results in many undiscovered amateur talents times. Many times, these agencies ask both talents and clients for a fee and booking costs. In addition, the main casting agencies focus only on one or two segments of the casting- and entertainment market, such as actors or models. Again, resulting in many talents being undiscovered.
As iCasting, we make sure that the casting process is faster and easier than traditional agencies. Clients are able to only select talents who are available for jobs, on the iCasting platform. In addition, we offer one-stop-shop talent ecosystem, serving the whole casting industry from one platform.
This method is not available in South Korea or even worldwide. In traditional casting, the client can select a talent, however, it is not certainty that they are even available for the job. Our platform makes sure that there will always be a match. However, the client needs to fill in all required fields to make sure that talents will be matched to the clients’ job.
In South Korea, amateur talents can put their information on various websites such as Craigslist or they can even be discovered on coincidence. Another option is to audition at different agencies or talent shows such as Korea’s Got Talent.
This means, that currently, there are no platforms that are able to match available talents directly with a client. This too leads to a slow and expensive process at traditional casting agencies.
There are only a few leading casting agencies in South Korea, but if one, as a talent, is not selected, then the chances of pursuing their dreams or use their talent effectively are limited.
