윤정호 대표
Jeong-ho Yoon, CEO of ‘Hilokal’, a social-based foreign language conversation platform company, appeared as a lecturer at the recently held ‘2023 Northeastern Seoul Startup Forum’ and introduced examples of using generative AI platforms.
This event is a forum designed to share innovative cases and trends of startups, seek development directions for the startup ecosystem, and promote business exchange and cooperation with startup-related organizations.
In addition, Hilokal recently participated in the ‘2023 Tourism Global Challenge Y&Bridge’ hosted by global accelerator Y&Archer and received support for showcases by inviting overseas organizations and discovering overseas local partners.
We had the opportunity to meet with CEO Jung Ho Yoon, who is taking proactive steps to expand into the global market, and discussed various aspects of the business, market potential, and future vision.
CEO Yoon said, “Hilokal is a startup founded in August 2020 with the vision of ‘getting along and learning.’ “Currently, we are working hard with our 20 team members to achieve our sales goal of 1.2 billion won this year.”
He continued, “Hilokal is a foreign language conversation platform that helps people practice and acquire conversation through interaction with foreign friends,” and added, “We are building 1 million foreign language clubs and community members around the world online.”
From the very beginning, CEO Yoon had global aspirations for the company.
He said, “Although it is a corporation that started in Korea, we have set it up as a global service from the beginning, with the co-founder CTO being American and the CMO being Canadian.”
“So, rather than doing global marketing, we have the competitive edge in language and culture to target the entire world,” he emphasized.
They received significant assistance from their participation in the '2023 Tourism Global Challenge Y&Bridge.‘
He explained, "Hilokal is designed not just as a simple foreign language conversation platform but as a place where users can naturally connect, practice, and achieve learning outcomes. In the process, we developed pronunciation evaluation models, language correction models, smart topic recommendation models, and through Open Innovation, we have the opportunity to supply these innovations.“
CEO Yoon has ambitious plans to become the top global platform within three years.
He stated, "We want to become the global leader by securing 10 million users within three years. In the future, AI will play a significant role, and Hilokal is already aligned with this paradigm shift, with over 1 million users in place. So, achieving this ambitious goal is not impossible."