South Korea is becoming a hotbed of big technology startups, with new businesses emerging in areas such as biotechnology, ride-hailing and online payments, making it the third-largest hub for such companies in the Asia-Pacific region after the far more populous China and India. The rise of stand-alone businesses is notable in an economy long dominated by sprawling family-owned conglomerates.

In South Korea, almost every household owns smartphones or mobile phones, creating large potential online markets, and consumers have proved open to change. E-commerce’s share of total retail in the nation is the highest in the world, and more than 60% of people bank online, higher than in some other Asian markets.