Korea Shifts Local Commerce Strategy: Nurturing Anchor Firms Over Subsidies

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based customized news recommendation and summarization service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. Shifting Weight from 'Subsidies to Founders'... Fostering Anchor Firms Like Sungsimdang and Terarosa

- Key Summary: The government is shifting the focus of its local commerce policy from facility improvements and short-term consumption promotion through subsidies to nurturing representative local entrepreneurs and anchor companies. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to nurture 10,000 local entrepreneurs and 1,000 local companies annually and to establish an investment base worth 200 billion won by 2030. It presented Daejeon's Sungsimdang, Busan's Samjin Fishcake, Gangneung's Terarosa, Gunsan's Lee Sung Dang, and Jeonju's Pungnyeon Bakery as representative models, and Ulsan, Daejeon, the southwestern region, the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region, and North Jeolla Province are pushing to create regional growth funds worth more than 450 billion won together with Korea Venture Investment. In addition, support for traditional markets will shift toward expanding "Century Markets" and strengthening online delivery, while the "AI autonomous management restaurant" model, in which AI handles ingredient ordering and receipt organization, is set to spread from 2027.

2. From 60% to 12% Vacancy... Local Entrepreneurs Who Revived Chungju's Old Downtown

- Key Summary: Gwanagol in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, revived its commercial district through the power of entrepreneurs who settled in the region, without large-scale development. The vacancy rate, which was 60% a decade ago, has fallen to 12% according to a Ministry of the Interior and Safety survey, while foot traffic has grown from 5,000 to 50,000 people a day, with more than 30 shops including cafes and concept stores moving in. In an interview with the Seoul Economic Daily on the 7th, Lee Sang-chang, CEO of Sesangsanghoe who built up Gwanagol, said that a neighborhood changes only when there is a key man who can sustain the appeal of people, capital, and content over the long term, calling for "self-reliance first, support later" rather than "support first, self-reliance later." Lee Seung-min, CEO of Korea Renovering, also pointed out that the approach of building structures first because a budget has been received must be abandoned.

3. "Abandon the Illusion of Population Growth and First Nurture a 'Self-Sustaining Local Ecosystem'"

- Key Summary: Voices are growing that the center of policies for responding to regional extinction and revitalizing local commercial districts must shift from facilities and infrastructure to people. Lee Seung-min, CEO of Korea Renovering, Lee Sang-chang, CEO of Sesangsanghoe, and Lee Chang-gil, CEO of Magyein Incheon, who met with the Seoul Economic Daily on the 7th, each presented living platforms, self-sustaining local players, and the reinterpretation of spaces suited to the times as starting points for regional revitalization. CEO Lee Seung-min stressed that goals like a surge in regional population from 30,000 to 50,000 are difficult to achieve given the current population situation, and that a living foundation enabling housing, work, and exchange must be established first. In addition, Gwanagol's clubs and communities have grown to about 70, and around 20 local activists operate in a structure that devotes 80% of the year to their main jobs and 20% to joint projects.

4. "Naver AI Factory to Generate Revenue from Next Year"

- Key Summary: Naver is accelerating the monetization of its artificial intelligence (AI) business. Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, said at the second-quarter earnings conference call on the 7th that revenue will be generated from the AI Factory business, starting with the launch of a 55-megawatt (㎿) service in the first half of 2027, and plans to build gigawatt (GW)-class infrastructure by expanding capacity in stages to 100㎿ at the end of 2027 and 200㎿ in 2028. The AI Tab, officially launched at the end of June, surpassed 10 million monthly active users (MAU) in about a month, and "AI Briefing Ads" showed a purchase conversion rate more than three times higher than existing search ads. Meanwhile, Naver's second-quarter consolidated revenue was 3.3888 trillion won, up 16.2% from a year earlier for a record quarterly high, but operating profit fell 0.2% to 520.3 billion won.