March 29, 2023

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[THE INVESTOR] IT&Basic, the operator of Korea’s top audience response system Symflow, aims to reach break-even point in 2019 by expanding its domestic and overseas business.

The Korean startup is known for providing an effective system for connecting shy audiences with presenters on stage through its mobile-based platform that make it possible for participants to raise questions anonymously. 

Symflow CEO Min Kyung-wook (Choi Ji-won/The Investor)

“We expect our sales to increase further this year to reach 2 billion won (US$1.80 million), especially through cooperating with Multicampus and break even this year,” said Symflow CEO Min Kyung-wook during an interview with The Investor.

Multicampus, which is a Samsung affiliate that focuses in HR areas, will provide its educational contents and IT&Basic will be responsible for establishing a customized platform for the contents and data organizing system, according to the partnership deal signed between the two companies last year.

The Symflow operator added that it expects more conglomerates to become their clients this year.

“Companies like LG Electronics and Shinhan Financial Group used Symflow during their New Year’s meeting and gave us positive feedback. They said that our platform helped the employees to communicate with the company’s management, including chairman, better,” Min said.

Moreover, in order to expand its business here, the company has also found ways to attract addition funds.

“Currently, we are talking with education giant Chunjae Education for a partnership. We are also talking about investing in us as a strategic investor,” he said.

“Since we have started expanding our business overseas, we are expecting that some global VCs will also see realize our potential.”

(Video shot and edited by Choi Ji-won / The Investor)
In Nov. 2017, IT&Basic established its first overseas unit in Japan. Min chose Japan as its first foreign market because he understands the culture well due to his experience working for Korean game developer Bluehole when it was entering the country with its game “Tera.”

“It has only been around a year but we are already seeing some results. Our program is currently being used at the SoftBank Cloud seminar in Japan,” he said.

The Symflow operator has also tapped the Chinese market by signing a deal with a local partner. The Korean startup and its Chinese partner will be testing its system by applying it to Zhejiang University’s MBA course.

Min noted that in order to achieve its target of breaking even, the company will continue to focus on hearing its client’s feedbacks.

“When I was working for Bluehole, I learned that it is important for developers to actually play the game ‘Tera’ with the actual users to hear and get their feedback. It’s the same with Symflow,” he said. “So, I encourage our workers to participate in the ceremonies and seminars so that they can actually get feedback directly at the spot.”

Established in 2013, the Korean company currently has opened more than 17,000 Symflow accounts for its clients.

By Song Seung-hyun and Choi Ji-won (ssh@heraldcorp.com)(jwchoikr@heraldcorp.com)