Gyeong-hoon Kim, President of Google Korea in 8 years… Can App Market Homework Solve?

Google Korea announced on the 12th that it will appoint Kim Kyung-hoon (46) as the new president. President Kim joined Google in 2015 after working as a developer former strategy consultant. President Kim has led the customer solution headquarters in Google Korea, which sells Google’s digital advertisements to small and medium-sized companies (including multinational companies).

President Kim graduated from Seoul Science High School and Seoul National University’s Computer Science Department. President Kim, who also worked as a developer at a domestic IT company, worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and Whatif Innovation (Shanghai) after his Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Duke University in the United States. I spent most of my career in Korea. Google Korea re-greeted the president of Korean nationality eight years after the resignation of former Google Korea president Dong-hoon Yeom in 2013. In the case of the predecessor, CEO John Lee, who was a Korean-American, mainly spoke English, it was pointed out that communication with Korean society such as the National Assembly was not smooth.

Inside Google Korea, there is an atmosphere that welcomes the appointment of President Kim, who is called the’good living man’. A Google Korea official who worked with him said, “It is logical and clear, but warm enough to lead in-house volunteer work for five years.” In an email sent to Google Korea employees on the 12th, President Kim emphasized Google’s mission to’make structured information useful to everyone’, and emphasized respect for users and communication.

Google Korea received intensive blame for the issue of the Google Play app market fee at the National Assembly audit last year. There was strong backlash from domestic IT companies and consumers over the mandatory in-app payment, which charges 30% of fees for non-game apps. Competition authorities such as the Fair Trade Commission also announced an investigation. Google initially tried to apply in-app payments from January, but delayed the application to October this year as public opinion deteriorated. New President Kim is also a homework facing the app market problem.

In the industry, it is expected that there will be limitations in solving large issues such as the app market, as President Kim is not a corporate representative with full responsibility and authority. The representative of Google Korea’s corporate registration award is Nancy Mabel Walker, an attorney in the United States (Google Headquarters Legal Team). On his job, President Kim is the president who oversees sales and marketing in Korea.

An official from Google Korea said, “The new president Kim must decide on important issues through communication with the US headquarters. Since the new president Kim has a high understanding of domestic issues and has worked with small and medium-sized companies and small and medium-sized developers, unlike in the past, I think we can lead the whole and take an active response,” he said. New President Kim plans to participate in the’App Ecosystem Win-Win Forum’ where Google and experts discuss app market issues in January to listen to stakeholders’ opinions.

Reporter Wonyeob Jung [email protected]

In-app payment → https://url.kr/qmvPIX