On June 3, 2025, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea was elected as the 21st President of South Korea. The AsiaN is publishing the hopes and expectations of Koreans for the new president and administration in both Korean and English editions. We welcome the interest, feedback, and constructive criticism of our readers.
The AsiaN Editorial Team
By Lee Pan-jung,
CEO of Netpia
SEOUL: At this pivotal moment in history, Korea is uniquely positioned—with both favorable timing and strategic geography on its side.
Amid a global civilizational shift, what is now most needed is inhwa—social harmony that unites the people. This is a moment that urgently calls for inclusive leadership capable of rising above conflict and division.
The same applies to leadership between nations.
Rather than confrontation, the path forward must be one of cooperation and unity.
To achieve this, South Korea must present a model that can revitalize the global economy—by creating a new paradigm of our time, one that only Korea can conceive and lead.
In this era, South Korea stands as a central nation of 21st-century internet civilization.
To truly serve as a center of civilization, it must lead the way by opening new industries.
South Korea has pioneered a new industry through the development of the Automatic Trademark Name Exchanger (the Korean-language internet address)—a feat no other country has achieved.
Korea became the first in the world to launch trademark-based (Hangul) internet addresses—creating unique digital addresses using brand names within the vast realm of the internet. This innovation allows economic entities to be distinctly identified and accessed online through their own trademark names.
In 1888, the United States opened the Third Industrial Revolution in services by introducing the automatic telephone switchboard, which enabled the identification of economic actors. Similarly, South Korea has ushered in the era of the Quaternary Convergent Industry through the development of the Automatic Trademark Name Exchanger.
The internet began with the World Wide Web and has rapidly advanced over the past 30 years. However, its current structure has become increasingly exploitative.
In an effort to dismantle this exploitative structure, 49 U.S. state governments jointly filed a lawsuit against Google. In the first trial, the federal court ruled in favor of the U.S. government under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits monopolistic practices.
This ruling marks a significant step toward reforming the predatory digital ecosystem.
Europe has also designated six companies as ‘gatekeepers’ under its Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA requires these gatekeepers to ensure interoperability with innovative companies. Failure to comply may result in fines of 10 to 20 percent of their global annual revenue.
However, while these countries lack viable alternatives to the exploitative structure of the internet, South Korea has one.
There is Netpia, a company specializing in native-language internet addresses—also known as the Automatic Trademark Name Exchanger—which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Moreover, in 2008, a pivotal moment occurred when internet spaces were recognized as identifiable by trademarks, a principle affirmed by a Supreme Court ruling.
Artificial intelligence technology has advanced by focusing on the “attention mechanism,” which identifies and concentrates on critical information within vast amounts of data. South Korea requires a similar strategy.
All government ministries, agencies, and companies must concentrate their capabilities on key areas of national growth and apply strategic fine-tuning. Today is an era where selection, focus, and meticulous strategic adjustments determine success or failure.
Meanwhile, the global economy faces structural bottlenecks. In August 2024, a U.S. federal court acknowledged that Google paid substantial sums to smartphone manufacturers to monopolize user traffic through their device address bars.
Thispracticehasstifledinnovationandmadeitdifficultforsmallandmedium-sized enterprises to enter the market. Samsung Electronics, for example, has generated approximately $7.7billion in annual revenue under this system; however, this has, paradoxically, weakened incentives for technological innovation.
Netpia, founded by the author in 1995, developed the world’s first “trademark name auto-resolver” and has since promoted native-language internet address systems in 95 languages worldwide.
This system, like a telephone number, transforms trademark names into internet addresses, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to connect directly with consumers through their own brand names.
South Korea must now take bold steps toward the era of the Quaternary Convergent Industry This new industrial structure, which merges the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors through an internet-based framework, enables the entire nation to be utilized as economic territory through storeless startups, remote work, and online distribution.
An office worker from Gwanghwamun buys a vacant house in Gangjin, Jeollanam-do, to run an accommodation business, connects with customers online, farms crops directly, and packages and processes agricultural products at a cooperative during nights or weekends. These goods are then supplied to regular urban customers met through the internet—an example of the convergent industry in action.
In such cases, businesses must be able to connect directly with customers at any time through their own trademark or service name via the internet address bar. This approach reduces intermediaries and platform dependence, minimizes fees, and helps build trust through branding to maintain loyal customers.
The internet address bar is not merely a simple input field; it serves as a gateway to the vast cyberspace—a digital mailbox guiding users to their destinations.
Another example is a retired individual in their 60s who remotely supports marketing and management for small and medium-sized enterprises using AI, earning between $115–$230 per company. With 10 clients, they generate a monthly income of $1,150–$2,300 per month, enjoying their later years while running a personal consulting business.
Clients may leave or new ones may request services directly through the consultant’s website, reflecting a new form of gig economy employment.
This represents another type of the Quaternary Convergent Industry.
However, for this structure to function effectively, trademark names must be protected within the address bar.
Currently, major tech companies—including Google—are unlawfully acquiring trademark traffic belonging to businesses without their consent.
Industry giants such as Apple and Samsung Electronics have been generating substantial profits by capturing this traffic and providing it to Google under so-called “default settings.” According to findings disclosed in a U.S. federal court, the annual value of this trademark traffic amounts to an estimated $27 billion annually.
Although this revenue essentially stems from the trademark traffic assets of small and medium-sized enterprises, it is counted as non-operating income for smartphone manufacturers. Apple reportedly earns around $19 billion annually from this structure, while Samsung generates approximately $7.7 billion.
For small businesses, the situation is akin to owning a phone number but being reachable only through a directory service like 411—an inefficient and costly detour that undermines direct customer connection.
From the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), an internet structure that prevents direct connection with consumers through their branded names is critically harmful.
They are forced to pay advertising fees to appear in Google search results, often suffering from wasted clicks and fraudulent click charges. Instead of a direct link to their customers, they must rely on detoured, platform-dependent paths. Each redirection through Google not only incurs cost—but also contributes to unnecessary carbon emissions.
This structure is as inefficient as having a phone number but being forced to connect through a directory assistance service every time.
If this structure is not reformed, the digital independence of creative small business owners, solo entrepreneurs, and retirees will continue to weaken. In the end, the economy will become increasingly dominated by large corporations and platform giants.
Moreover, despite living in the Internet age, the current exploitative structure of the web forces individuals into an excessively platform-dependent system with burdensome fees.
As a result, instead of choosing low-risk online ventures, many are driven into risky offline businesses that demand high interior costs and costly demolition fees upon closure—leaving them with no viable alternative.
In particular, to ensure that Korea’s 8 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 19 million workers are no longer sacrificed to the platform economy, the government and National Assembly must legislate—or establish new legal precedents—to recognize address bar trademark traffic as the intangible property of trademark holders, to be managed like electricity: a controllable and protectable property.
Once protected under criminal law, trademark traffic in the address bar would function as the internet-era equivalent of a telephone number.
This would serve as a foundational, address-based infrastructure to support the transition toward the Quaternary Convergent Industry.
The expectations placed on the new president are unmistakable. As a nation at the forefront of digital civilization, South Korea must lead by example—protecting address bar trademark traffic and establishing itself as a global model for the emerging Quaternary Convergent Industry.
Just as the invention of the automatic telephone exchange system in the United States ushered in the modern service industry, Korea now has the opportunity to open a new industrial era through the “trademark name auto-resolver(Native Language Internet Address)”.
Now is the time for South Korea to fulfill its responsibility.
China’s policy of “common prosperity” and America’s “America First” approach alone cannot revitalize the global economy. It is time to stimulate the world economy by advancing the Quaternary Convergent Industry as a new global growth model.
It is South Korea’s responsibility as a central nation of modern civilization.
The time has come—this is a moment of destiny.
