[이코노믹리뷰=최진홍 기자] HyperConnect, which runs Azar, is in the arms of a match group famous for its dating app Tinder.
The Match Group has agreed to acquire 100% of HyperConnect for $1.75 billion (about 1.93 trillion won). HyperConnect will continue its independent management system after this agreement, and closing (closing the transaction) is expected in the second quarter of this year.
With the graceful brothers who run the People of Delivery sold to Delivery Heroes in Germany for 4.75 trillion won, another trillion transaction came out.
Exit, become the mainstream
Just a few years ago, these words came out in the domestic startup industry. “I can’t see Kakao, the second Naver”
What does it mean? In general, the primary goal of entrepreneurs is to make a company a’big company’ by listing it. There is an atmosphere where it is taken for granted to dream bigger by raising a large amount of capital in the stock market with recognition in the industry.
However, in the startup industry, this atmosphere has disappeared. In the case of Yanolja, they are preparing for listing, and there are examples of attempting special listings such as Flitto, but most entrepreneurs prefer exit, or sale, rather than listing. Even before the People of Delivery and HyperConnect, exits were more popular than listing in the startup industry.
That’s why the word “I can’t see the second Naver, Kakao” came out.
The premise of this complaining is that “founders prefer to exit and hold money, but do not try to make the big picture by developing their own business.”
Is it correct? It is not that there is no atmosphere at all to get a share by exiting the business quickly without thinking about the troublesome listing. However, this is an area of personal choice and cannot be enforced. There is no reason to be criticized for not having a big dream of becoming Naver and Kakao.
However, it is necessary to point to the concept of’serial entrepreneur’, which has been popular for a while.
Even if startup entrepreneurs do not draw the big picture of listing their business and becoming the second Naver, Kakao, it is necessary to focus on the scene in which their own startup ecosystem virtuous cycle structure is drawn in the process of repeating startups and exits.
This can fatten the entire ecosystem in a healthy way and draw out the flow of money and workforce smoothly. Yes. The only moral and intellectual criticism of’innovator spirit’ that those who want to take a part in the exit are largely offset by the advent of serial entrepreneurs.
Now, exit is also a key moment to gain weight in the ICT industry as much as listing. What if the second Naver, Kakao, does not come out? If the market becomes more prosperous and healthy through the successive exits of serial entrepreneurs, this also leads to the creation of a successful ecosystem.