Korean Gaming Company Shift Up's Founder Becomes A Billionaire

Forbes

In one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in South Korea this year, shares of online game developer Shift Up soared in their trading debut Thursday, making its founder and CEO, Kim Hyung-tae, a billionaire.  The company’s shares closed at 71,000 won on their first day of trading on the Korea Exchange, up 18% from the offering price. That gives Shift Up a valuation of around 4.1 trillion won (about $3 billion), making it the fourth-biggest online gaming company listed in South Korea by market capitalization after Krafton, Netmarble and NCSoft.  Kim, 45, is the largest shareholder of Shift Up, with a 39% stake in his own name. His wife, Chae Ji-yoon, holds a nearly 0.5% stake in the company. Forbes estimates Kim and his wife’s net worth at $1 billion.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkang/2024/07/11/founder-of-korean-gaming-company-becomes-billionaire-as-shares-surge-on-listing/#:~:text=The%20late%20Kim%20Jung%2Dju,Jung%2Dyoun%20are%20all%20billionaires.  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Founder of Korean Gaming Company Becomes Billionaire as Shares Surge on Listing

00:08In one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in South Korea this year, shares of online game developer ShiftUp

00:15soared in their trading debut Thursday, making its founder and CEO, Kim Hyung-tae, a billionaire.

00:22The company's shares closed at

00:24171,000 South Korean won on their first day of trading on the Korea exchange, up 18% from the offering price.

00:32That gives ShiftUp a valuation of around 4.1 trillion won, about 3 billion US dollars,

00:38making it the fourth biggest online gaming company listed in South Korea by market capitalization

00:44after Krafton, Netmarble, and NCSoft.

00:48Kim, who is 45 years old, is the largest shareholder of ShiftUp, with a 39% stake in his own name.

00:55His wife, Choi Ji-yoon, holds a nearly 0.5% stake in the company.

01:00Forbes estimates Kim and his wife's net worth at 1 billion dollars.

01:05ShiftUp raised 435 billion won, about 320 million dollars, in an initial public offering of

01:137.25 million shares at 60,000 won apiece.

01:17The top of its indicative range.

01:19ShiftUp will use the proceeds of the IPO to develop new games and expand popular titles such as Goddess of Victory Nikkei and

01:27Stellar Blade.

01:28The ShiftUp IPO is the second biggest in South Korea this year, following KKR-backed HD Hyundai Marine Solutions'

01:36742 billion won offering in May, and the country's largest gaming IPO since Krafton's 4.3 trillion won float in

01:452021.

01:46Investors that backed ShiftUp before its IPO include Tencent,

01:51online game mogul Park Hwan-ho's WeMade,

01:54Kakao Ventures, the venture capital arm of Korean billionaire Kim Byung-soon's internet giant Kakao,

02:00Korean energy conglomerate Daesung Group's private equity arm, whose portfolio includes Korean online game developers Krafton and Pearl Abyss,

02:09Smilegate Investment, the venture capital arm of game giant Smilegate, and

02:14IMM Investment, which also backed Krafton.

02:17Tencent, the world's largest game publisher by revenue, is the second biggest shareholder in ShiftUp after Kim.

02:24The Chinese company owns a 35% stake through Aceville, a Singapore-based subsidiary of Tencent's cloud arm.

02:32Tencent is the distributor of ShiftUp's Goddess of Victory Nikkei.

02:36ShiftUp, based in Seoul's upscale Gangnam neighborhood, was founded by Kim in 2013.

02:42Kim was previously a video game artist at NCSoft, where he oversaw the design of the company's flagship online game, Blade and Soul.

02:50ShiftUp reported that revenue rose

02:52155% year-over-year to

02:55169 billion won, or

02:57122 million dollars, in calendar year 2023, while net income was

03:03107 billion won, up from a loss of 7 billion won in the previous year period.

03:09Almost all, 97%, of its revenue came from its flagship game, Goddess of Victory Nikkei.

03:15The game has more than 5 million downloads in the Google Play Store and has a current rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars,

03:22based on 489,000 reviews.

03:25It is currently the number five top-grossing mobile role-playing game in the U.S., according to research firm Sensor Tower.

03:32Goddess of Victory Nikkei is a third-person shooter and role-playing game with anime-style graphics.

03:38Like many other free-to-play games, Goddess of Victory Nikkei makes money through in-game purchases.

03:44Specifically, the game charges players for the chance to win rare characters, a technique called gacha, the Japanese word for vending machines that dispense toy

03:52capsules without showing the contents prior to purchase.

03:55It's a proven recipe for success.

03:57Chinese developer MiHoYo's Genshin Impact, one of the world's hottest mobile games and the first global hit made in China,

04:05uses anime-style graphics and employs the gacha technique to make money and keep players hooked.

04:11ShiftUp's Kim is the latest Korean billionaire to make a fortune from the online gaming sector.

04:16South Korea, home to the world's fastest internet speeds, was one of the earliest developers of popular multiplayer online games.

04:24NCSoft, for example, released in 1998 a multiplayer online game called Lineage.

04:30A mobile version of the game, Lineage M, is one of the top-grossing games in the world.

04:35And in 2003, Nexon launched MapleStory, a multiplayer online game with over 250 million registered users worldwide,

04:44which helped pioneer the free-to-play model where users play games for free but pay for virtual items and accessories.

04:51For full coverage, check out John Kang's piece on Forbes.com.

04:56This is Ciarán Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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