K-Culture Goes Global: The Technology Behind Korea's Cultural Rise

K-pop, K-drama, gaming, webtoons — Korean entertainment has become one of the defining cultural exports of the 21st century. But the K-wave didn't happen on its own: it was built on technology. Mobile-first distribution, AI recommendation systems, streaming platforms, webtoon publishing infrastructure, and the gaming engines that put Korean content into hundreds of millions of phones worldwide are the quiet infrastructure behind the cultural rise. Jaejoon Song has spent 25 years at the intersection of entertainment and technology — from building Korea's first mobile games on black-and-white feature phones to leading one of Asia's most active venture capital firms with over 100 portfolio companies across gaming, K-content, and Web3. In this keynote he examines how Korea used technology to scale culture globally — the business models, platform choices, and creative bets behind the wave — and what the next chapter of tech-powered cultural export looks like, both for Korean entertainment and for any country trying to follow its playbook.