Las Vegas Convention Center, USA. ‘CES 2022’, the world’s largest IT and home appliance exhibition, came to an end on the 8th. Photo = Reporter Nojeong-dong Hankyung.com dong2@hankyung.com
‘CES 2022’, the world’s largest information technology (IT) and home appliance exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA, came to an end on the 8th. This year’s CES, which resumed offline for the first time in two years due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), took part in this year’s CES, with regarding 500 companies, the second largest in Korea following the United States, where 1,300 companies participated.
Among the exhibited products, 623 were awarded the CES Innovation Award, of which 139 were made by Korean companies. More than 1 out of 5 innovative products selected at CES were made by Korean companies. Local IT media ‘The Verge’ and others are worthy of evaluation, saying, “It is not surprising that most of the places that introduced the most innovative products at this year’s CES are Korean companies.”
However, the atmosphere of Korean companies felt at the CES booth was ‘half excitement, half bitterness’. He looked excited regarding being able to show off his technology and introduce products to overseas buyers and consumers, but on the one hand, he felt frustrated because he had to return to Korea and focus on R&D, which might be commercialized in a business environment blocked by related regulations. Said it cost
For example, a domestic startup company, Coptic, developed a system to recommend and sell customized glasses following analyzing a user’s face shape and size with an application (app), but it is illegal in Korea. In Korea, non-face-to-face sales of eyeglasses are prohibited. The company is currently preparing to do business in the United States. Monit, a Korean venture company that developed a diaper management system with a smart sensor for elderly patients, also launched the product in Japan, not Korea, due to domestic ‘telemedicine’ regulations.
The skin cancer diagnosis service of DumTech, an American healthcare company that won the Innovation Award at this year’s CES, is also not available in Korea. It is a service that informs consumers of the results of a genetic test within three days when a consumer sends a patch that has been attached to and removed from the skin by mail, but in Korea, it cannot be done without a hospital. An official from the company said, “We plan to provide services in Singapore, where there are no related regulations in Asia.”
The same goes for large companies. Hyundai Motor Group set the goal of introducing ‘MoBED’, a multi-purpose small mobility platform unveiled at CES this year, to consumers two years later. As each wheel moves independently, it can maintain the desired posture even on slanted roads or irregularities, so it can be used for logistics sites, as well as for the elderly who have difficulty lifting strollers and heavy loads. However, according to the Road Traffic Act in Korea, autonomous robots are classified as automobiles and cannot walk on sidewalks or crosswalks. In the case of the United States, although it varies from state to state, there are cases in which autonomous driving robots are classified differently from cars and systematically increased their utilization.
Hyun Dong-jin, managing director of Robotics Lab, who is leading the robot development at Hyundai Motor Company, said, “In the case of Mobed, I think that mass production will be regarding two years later. In particular, regulations can prolong the development period,” he said.
The trend of this year’s CES that I looked around at the site was ‘territorial destruction’. Home appliance makers are coming out with electric vehicles, and auto makers have become robot companies. Hangeul and Computer, famous for its document creation program, has been reborn as a metaverse company.
Realm destruction and fusion have never been similar in the past, so their path will soon open up a new field. But even before the start, various regulations are holding back. There were also complaints that domestic companies blocked by regulations sometimes make a living as a ‘secondary job’ in Korea to continue their main business abroad. Given this situation, can Korean companies continue their potential as ‘first movers’ at CES this year?
Las Vegas = Reporter Nojeong-dong Hankyung.com dong2@hankyung.com
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