Nexon's Min Kim, vice president of marketing at Nexon America, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference China. GDC China, presented by Think Services, a division of United Business Media, will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.
In his keynote address titled "A Fantastic Westward Journey," Kim will share with Chinese developers Nexon's experiences in bringing popular Korean games and new business models to North America. Once relegated to the continent of Asia, microtransactions have become an evolutionary catalyst for the North American games market thanks to hit imports such as Nexon's hugely successful MapleStory franchise.
Nexon is also well known for developing the world's first internet quiz game, QPlay, setting a world record of 700,000 concurrent users in China in 2004 with Crazy Arcade BnB, and developing South Korea's most played online game KartRider (over 30% of the population). Nexon plans to re-launch its publishing efforts under a new portal, BlockParty.com, which will house a total of eight titles in the US by the end of 2010 including Dungeon Fighter Online (due to launch later this year) and Dragon Nest.
"Min Kim will be an exceptional and inspirational keynote speaker for China," said Meggan Scavio, GDC China event director. "Nexon's success is proof that there is a market beyond Asia for these types of non-hardcore MMOs. Moreover, the game industry has been taken by storm with Nexon's microtransaction business model. The Chinese audience stands to gain a tremendous account of firsthand knowledge, anecdotes and advice from Kim to take back to their companies and studios."
As vice president of marketing at Nexon America, Min is responsible for business development initiatives and game operations of Nexon published titles in the US. His current professional and personal goal is the successful introduction and adoption of the microtransaction business model in the US.
Prior to joining Nexon America, Min operated the successful launch of the Global Edition of MapleStory as the Vice President of Global Business Development at Wizet Corp. Today, MapleStory remains one of the world's top online games supported by a microtransaction business model which reports over 92 million users in its free-to-play service worldwide with six million registered in North America. Min started his career in video games as a senior associate of business development at Nexon Corporation pursuing new business opportunities such as a social networking service, a board game business and online game licensing.