Yoon Ki-sang, research head of Breathings, poses with the company's lung status check device, Bulo, at the IFA tech fair in Berlin, Friday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Over 160 Korean firms join Europe's largest consumer electronics fair

By Baek Byung-yeul

BERLIN ― Korean companies are trying to capitalize on the IFA tech fair, currently being held in the German capital city, to meet high-income European consumers and overcome the ongoing business uncertainties and supply chain disruptions that have followed the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, they said Friday (local time).

Other than Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, over 160 Korean companies are represented at the fair, which is taking place as a full offline event ― after being held in a hybrid online-offline format in 2020 and being canceled in 2021 ― to promote their technologies and products.

Given that 39 Korean companies participated in the 2017 event, 58 in 2018 and 91 in 2019, this year's IFA features the largest number of Korean companies ever.

One place where visitors can see how actively Korean companies are running promotional campaigns is the IFA NEXT exhibition hall. At the space, designed for startups from around the world, 183 startups set up their booths, of which Korea had the most with 52 companies, more than host country Germany with 38 firms or France with 26 firms.

In order to help expose more Korean firms to European consumers, state-run firms such as the Korea Innovation Center (KIC), the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), as well as private company Lotte Group provided Korean companies with financial and technical support to take part.

"It is now difficult for Korean companies to enter the Chinese market because most products consumed there are made by domestic companies. In this situation, Korean companies have focused on the Korean and U.S. markets, and they are aiming to meet European consumers with high purchasing power through the IFA," an official of a company that joined the show said on condition of anonymity.

At the consumer electronics and appliances fair, Korean companies unveiled their products based on novel ideas and the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital healthcare.

Healthcare startup Breathings has been gaining visitors' attention with Bulo, its lung capacity measuring device.

The portable device offers customized breathing exercise guidance by measuring users' lung capacity, lung endurance and lung muscle strength.

"The lungs are a really vulnerable organ and once a disease occurs in the lungs, it is not easy to recover. We decided to develop the IoT (internet of things)-based device after focusing on the point that only 2 percent of people are checking the status of their lungs regularly," said Yoon Ki-sang, research head of Breathings.