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Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
[Photo News] Toss meets Silicon Valley talent
Toss CEO and founder Lee Seung-gun speaks at the financial technology company's first global networking event, Toss USA Meetup, on Friday in Los Altos, California. Aimed at Silicon Valley engineers, the event showcased Toss' artificial intelligence-driven vision and developer-friendly culture. It took place at the company's new US office, opened earlier this year to bolster international hiring efforts. (Toss)
Hype Malaysia
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hype Malaysia
Relive Your Childhood The Viking Way With The 'How To Train Your Dragon' Pop-Up At Sunway Pyramid!
One of the most pivotal animated films of the 2010s is, without a doubt, DreamWorks' 'How to Train Your Dragon,' a beautiful fantasy world where humans and dragons co-exist… Well, sort of. Now, after 15 years, you can once again relive the magic of your childhood and revisit the world of Berk with Sunway Pyramid's 'How To Train Your Dragon' pop-up! That's right! Made in collaboration with United Pictures, Sunway Pyramid invites you to LG2 Orange Concourse, where you'll find the 'How to Train Your Dragon' pop-up! This immersive live experience lets you explore the cheerfully chaotic town with Hiccup and his crew in person! Explore fun games and endless activities with your friends and family! Step into the fantastical world of Berk, a legendary town where dragons and humans coexist. As you enter, you are ushered into a stunning recreation of its hearty Viking society, complete with workshops, sheep pens, and training areas! Each portion of the set plunges you deep into the beloved fictional region, with loads of activities for you and your young ones to enjoy. Not only can you have non-stop fun, but you can also win exciting prizes. From 6th to 22nd June, simply head over to the Orange Concourse and check in via Sunway Malls Mobile App and you can be one of the 10 lucky shoppers who stand a chance to win an exclusive 'How to Train Your Dragon' merchandise set, containing a baseball cap, tumbler, and picnic basket! One such activity to try your hand at is the Sheep Toss! Unleash your inner Viking strength and hurl mini sheep plushies into the dragon's mouth to earn points! But you better hurry, as you'll be racing against the clock, so be sure to earn as many points as you can with the time allotted! Once the dragons are nice and fed, it's time to earn the namesake of the venue and train your own dragon! Enter the dynamic obstacle course that will put your skills to the test. Hone your dragon strength, speed, precision, and agility as you bob, weave, and leap into success. You'll also get an up-close and personal look at your other favourite dragons, such as Meatlug, HookFang, Stormfly, and Barf and Belch. When you've earned the heart of a Viking, it's time to dress like one! Don your favourite fur coat and helmet, and become a full-fledged member of Berk! Then, pop a squat at Stoick the Vast's magnificent throne for an unforgettable photo opportunity, complete with matching backdrop and vibrant decor. Naturally, a day in Berk would not be complete without a photo of everyone's favourite lean, mean, yet huggable beast — Toothless! Not only that, but if you post your photos with the hashtags '#SunwayPyramid', '#HTTYD2025', '#HTTYDLiveActionMovie', '#OnlyInPyramid' online, you stand a chance to win some exciting prizes! So be sure to strike your best pose! Once you've finished all of that, you can take home your very own commemorative temporary Dragon Tattoo set. Looking to strengthen your brain and flex your creativity? Then head on over to Hiccup's Workshop, where you can customise your very own dragon model! With paper, craft materials, and a bit of creativity, you can bring your creation to life. Furthermore, with three different workshops, guests can create their very own mask, shield, and dragon, giving your friends and family endless fun! Note that these events are only available from Friday to Sunday and on public holidays, so be sure to clear your schedule to get the Viking experience! Activity: Session Time: Perler Beads Dragon Workshop (Maximum 15 pax per session) 11:00am 3:00 pm 6:00 pm Aqua Beads Shield Workshop (Maximum 15 pax per session) 1:00pm 4:00pm 8:00pm Dragon Mask Colouring All day! Though there are plenty of fun activities to be had in Sunway Pyramid, did you know that you can also bring the joy of 'How to Train Your Dragon' to your home? How? With the Isle of Berk Emporium! It's your one-stop shop for exclusive merch and items, perfect for kids and kids at heart. Not only that, but if you spend RM400 within three receipts or RM300 in three receipts for UOB cardmembers, you'll get your very own Toothless Squishy! From 6th to 22nd June, you're invited to visit the 'How to Train Your Dragon' pop-up located at LG2 Orange Concourse in Sunway Pyramid and let these mythical creatures and your creativity run wild! And don't forget to check out 'How to Train Your Dragon' in theatres starting 7th June at TGV Sunway Pyramid! For more information, visit Sunway Pyramid's official website. What's your Reaction? +1 0 +1 0 +1 0 +1 0 +1 0 +1 0
Korea Herald
30-05-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Toss eyes expansion in Australia
Viva Republica, operator of mobile financial service Toss, is mulling an Australian subsidiary as part of its global expansion push. 'We are currently considering establishing a subsidiary in Australia,' an official from Viva Republica said, declining to comment on further details. A local news report suggested the fintech giant has decided to launch in Australia, recognizing the country's well-developed financial infrastructure and flexible regulatory environment. It is likely to launch a similar app to its popular Toss in Australia within this year or next year, according to the report. Earlier this year, Viva Republica unveiled its ambition to have half of Toss' total user base be outside Korea by 2030. 'Toss will become a financial superapp used by the whole world," Lee Seung-gun, founder and CEO of Viva Republica, said at a press conference celebrating the company's 10th anniversary in February. While having established a solid presence on Korean soil, Viva Republica has been struggling to expand overseas. After setting up subsidiaries in Vietnam and Singapore, the fintech giant pulled out of the markets, citing limits in business environments. Viva Republica's push to forage into the Australian market could be a move to establish its global presence in line with its planned US market debut. The fintech operator is gearing up for an initial public offering in the US within this year or early next year. Its stock market valuation is estimated between 10 trillion and 20 trillion won ($7.2 billion-$14.5 billion).
Time Business News
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Time Business News
Looking for a PlayHQ Alternative? Here's Why CricHeroes Is Your Best Bet
If you're managing cricket matches, tournaments, or player stats and are considering a PlayHQ alternative, you're in the right place. While PlayHQ offers a multi-sport solution, CricHeroes delivers a cricket-first experience packed with features designed specifically for the cricketing ecosystem. In this guide, we compare both platforms in depth and explain why CricHeroes stands out as the ideal PlayHQ alternative for players, scorers, organizers, and fans alike. At its core, PlayHQ is built for multiple sports, catering to a variety of associations and clubs. It's functional for general sports management but lacks depth when it comes to cricket-specific needs. CricHeroes, on the other hand, is tailored exclusively for cricket. From hyper-detailed scoring options to live match streaming and AI-generated highlights, it goes beyond basic match management — it builds an entire ecosystem for grassroots cricket. Feature PlayHQ CricHeroes Sport Focus Multi-sport (including cricket) Cricket-only Scoring Options Basic Advanced with ball-by-ball analytics Match Highlights Not available Auto-generated AI highlights Fan Engagement Tools Minimal Live scores, social sharing, commentary Tournament Management Standard Full-featured with league formats Mobile Access Web and app Web, app, and Apple Watch Leaderboards & Rankings Limited Comprehensive from local to national level Premium Tools (e.g. NRR, Toss) Not available Smart NRR calculator, Virtual Toss, MVPs Live Streaming & Animations Not offered Real-time score widgets & rich animations Community Building Basic Powerful cricket-focused community tools PlayHQ's all-sport focus limits its capacity to cater to cricket's unique needs. CricHeroes, being 100% cricket-focused, offers features like ball-wise commentary, player form analysis, and in-depth match analytics that go well beyond the basics. CricHeroes turns every local match into a spectacle. With live scoring, real-time highlights, and social engagement, fans stay glued, and players get the recognition they deserve — something PlayHQ simply doesn't offer. From AI-generated MVPs to smart Net Run Rate calculators and virtual tosses, CricHeroes brings innovation to match and tournament management. Whether you're organizing a friendly match or a large-scale tournament, these tools save time and elevate professionalism. CricHeroes isn't just a tool — it's a community. Players, scorers, umpires, and fans connect, share performances, and even get discovered for higher-level opportunities. It's more than a platform; it's a digital home for cricket lovers. CricHeroes offers free access with premium features that cater to organizers of all sizes. Whether you're an individual team or a cricket association, it scales with your needs — unlike PlayHQ's tiered pricing built for broader, non-specialized use. If cricket is your passion and you want a platform that understands the game inside out, CricHeroes is the clear PlayHQ alternative you've been searching for. With features that support everything from local matches to national-level competitions — and a thriving community to match — it's built for the future of cricket. Ditch the generic. Go cricket-first. Sign up on CricHeroes and experience a smarter, deeper, and more exciting way to manage the game. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Toss founder Lee Seung-gun—onetime dentist, now Korea's fintech maven—talks super apps, ‘rubbish ideas,' and IPO plans ‘in the near future'
Lee Seung-gun—or 'SG' for foreigners unfamiliar with Korean pronunciation—has a classic startup founder story that mixes tenacity, repeated failure, ultimate success … and dental care. It started in 2011, when Lee left a Samsung-owned private hospital to start Viva Republica. 'I started as a dentist, like all the other Asian children whose parents want their kids to be neurosurgeons or dentists,' he says with a laugh. 'When I was 29 or 30, I had no dream. I just wanted to be a famous dentist,' he remembers. But he soon grew restless with just helping people on an individual basis. 'To create impact at scale, I quickly realized that I had to focus on technology.' His push into entrepreneurship had a difficult start. He devoted 150 million won of savings—about $105,000—toward his new venture. 'For the first five years, I failed eight times,' he says. He reels off a couple of what he calls 'rubbish ideas': social media, a voting app. A Bloomberg report from 2018 noted that, at one point, Lee had just 20,000 won ($14) in the bank, and was pleading with the families of employees to let them keep working without pay. Then he found an idea that worked: a money transfer service. 'Toss was another stupid idea, but we were crazy enough to do it, because we had nothing to lose,' he says with a smile. 'And here we are.' Almost 15 years after its founding in 2011, Toss is now part of a larger fintech 'super app,' a single platform that combines banking, insurance, stock trading, and money transfer services. South Koreans have an average of five bank accounts and four credit cards—which means a lot of different financial accounts to juggle. Lee thinks that's why Toss has proved so popular, as Koreans have 'more occasions to check their finances.' Viva Republica is now one of Korea's most prominent startups, worth about $7 billion after a 2022 funding round. The company boasts backers like GIC, PayPal, and Qualcomm Ventures. Lee has also become one of South Korea's newest billionaires, according to a 2021 estimate from Forbes. The Toss platform claims to have close to 30 million registered users, which would be equal to around 60% of South Korea's entire population. Over half of the company's 25 million monthly active users visit the app at least 10 times a day. 'Our monthly active user base is actually a little shy of that of Instagram [in Korea],' he boasts. Asia is covered in super apps, where platforms like Tencent's WeChat include services like messaging, payments, food delivery, news, games, and more. Finance is a popular service for budding super apps, even for non-finance companies, with Singapore's Grab and Sea, and Indonesia's GoTo among Asian platforms with fintech divisions. Super apps keep users on a single platform, rather than sending them off to another company. That allows for cross-promotion, resource sharing, and other support between various services. It also makes it harder to switch to another platform: If everything you ever need is on one app, why would you try something else? Yet super apps have not taken off in the West, even as the model wins fans like X owner Elon Musk, who hopes to turn his social media network into a financial services platform. Lee's theory is that super apps are a better fit for the Asian internet, which initially lacked much of the digital infrastructure that underpins U.S. startups. In the U.S., a new startup can rely on a plethora of other companies that provide supporting services. In Asia—even in wealthy countries like South Korea—those companies just don't exist. That means a platform like Toss, or its more established Big Tech peers Naver and Kakao, had to build those services itself. 'When we launched our flagship money transfer service, it was loved by so many users, so we were able to grow very fast. We quickly realized that all the other vertical sectors of finance were not covered by other players,' he explains. 'There has been a huge void in the Korea market, so we were able to capture those opportunities.' Viva Republica hit a key milestone last year, when it reported its first annual profit since its founding over a decade ago. The company reported a net profit of 21.3 billion Korean won ($15 million) for 2024, compared with a 216.6 billion won ($152 million) loss the year before. Revenue also jumped 43% to hit 1.96 trillion won ($1.4 billion). Lee says the first-ever profit is the result of a focus on growing revenue rather than building market share. 'Unlike other fintech players, user growth doesn't really correlate with revenue. Most of our revenue doesn't come from users, but instead from our business customers,' attracted to Toss's point-of-sale program, or its advertising opportunities. 'For the next three to five years, it's going to mostly be a story around acquiring more business customers,' he says. Viva Republica's profit also came from strong growth in Toss Securities, the platform's stock trading service. Lee notes it's the only service that charges users a fee, and contributes about 20% of the platform's total revenue. He added that Toss Securities, after its launch in 2021, grew quickly owing to the Toss super app. 'It took Robinhood two years to get 2 million securities accounts,' Lee says. 'We achieved that in five days.' Toss has higher penetration among younger Koreans, with as many as 90% of those in their twenties using the platform. Lee says that while there aren't a lot of differences between Toss's younger and older users, one major divergence is that newer generations are more open to investing in foreign stocks, primarily in the U.S. Now that Viva Republica has found a profitable business model, is the company on a path to a public debut, the next big milestone for a startup? Lee says that Viva Republica plans to go public 'in the near future,' but declined to give specific details on timing and location. According to local media, Viva Republica is considering a U.S. IPO, abandoning plans to list in South Korea late last year. The company reportedly believes that Korean equity markets won't properly value a fintech platform like Toss. (Lee declined to share details when pressed.) Shares in competing fintech services KakaoBank and KakaoPay have lost around 70% and 80% of their value since their respective 2021 IPOs. Korean equities often suffer from low valuations—sometimes dubbed the 'Korea Discount.' Analysts blame the threat posed by nearby North Korea and poor corporate governance among the country's chaebols, the massive conglomerates that dominate the economy. The country considered passing market reforms that would unlock value, similar to what was successfully pursued by its neighbor Japan. Yet reforms have stalled owing to a more pressing political crisis. In December, then-President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to impose martial law. After widespread protests from the public and the opposition, Yoon withdrew his declaration just a few hours later. Lawmakers quickly suspended and impeached Yoon, spurring months of political instability. Things are now starting to come to a close after the country's Constitutional Court upheld Yoon's impeachment, formally removing him from office—the second time a president has been removed in less than a decade. Korea will hold snap presidential elections in early June. Still, Lee thinks the crisis shows South Korea's strengths. 'I'm gaining more confidence in the market,' he says. 'Everything was done by the constitution, and the process was peaceful. 'This is the tipping point where we really need to focus on economic growth, not only from businessmen, but from politicians as well,' Lee continues. South Korea is grappling with disillusionment among the young, frustrated by high levels of debt, unaffordable housing, and more limited social mobility. That's partly why many have turned to retail trading in stocks, or even more speculative assets like cryptocurrencies. The East Asian country, a major exporter, is also frantically negotiating with the U.S. to alleviate tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, including 25% auto tariffs and 26% 'reciprocal tariffs.' When asked whether uncertainty more broadly is affecting confidence among individual Koreans, Lee points to growth in Toss's ads business last year as proof that the country's economy is still strong. And he remains bullish on South Korea as an attractive market for anyone who wants to get into fintech. 'Despite its limited population,' Lee says, 'the Korean market is massive.' This interview was conducted in collaboration with Fortune Korea. This story was originally featured on
