Korea's Strategies for ICT Standards Internationalisation: A Comparison with China's

Abstract

Korea and China are among the rising challengers in the international ICT Information Communication and Technology standards regime. They are attempting to internationalize their home-grown technologies. As latecomers they share similarities and display differences. This paper examines two Korean cases WIPI and WiBro, and compares with Chinese cases. Thereby it helps to conceptualize and evaluate latecomers' strategies for international standardization. Comparison of the two countries' strategies for international standardization is useful and timely particularly considering forthcoming FTA negotiations between the two countries where TBT technical barriers to trade including standards becomes a critical part of the agreement. The cases of the two countries share some commonalities in terms of origination local R&D, government leadership and motivation reduction of royalties. The main difference is that while Korea is oriented towards the outside, China is towards the inside, at least by now. Due to its huge domestic markets and global influence, China's standards form a real threat to the incumbent standards from traditional players like US and EU.