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Good practice Imported

Pangyo Techno Valley

South Korea · Seongnam · See the South Korea profile · See the Seongnam profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 29% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

South Korea's premier technology cluster — the 'Silicon Valley of Asia'. 1,622 companies and 73,000+ knowledge workers generated combined revenues of KRW 157.5 trillion (≈ US$115B) in 2022, led by IT, gaming, and biotech firms in Seongnam, adjacent to Seoul.

KRW 157.5 trillion
Combined company revenue, Phase 1 (2022)
1,194
Companies in operation, Phase 1 (2022)
KRW 167.7 trillion
Combined revenue, Phase 1+2 (2022)
1,622
Companies, Phase 1+2 (2022)
73,000+
Workers, Phase 1+2 (2022)
36%
Workers in R&D roles (2022)
~68%
Workers aged 30-49 (2022)
65%
IT/gaming tenant share
14%
Biotech tenant share
10%
Content-firm tenant share
~91%
SME tenant share

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Gyeonggi Provincial Government / Pangyo Techno Valley Management Foundation
Period
2006–present
Keywords
Information technology, gaming, biotechnology, digital content

Context

Pangyo Techno Valley is a purpose-built technology cluster in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, ~25km south of Seoul, developed by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Phase 1 opened in 2006 and reached full occupancy by 2015; Phase 2 began operations in 2020.

Activities

The valley hosts IT and gaming companies (including NCSoft, Nexon, Neowiz and Kakao Entertainment, 65% of tenants), biotech firms (14%) and content firms (10%), plus major R&D centres of Hyundai, LG, Cisco and Oracle; about 91% of tenants are SMEs.

Results

Official 2022 data records KRW 157.5 trillion in combined revenue and 1,194 companies for Phase 1 alone; combined Phase 1+2 figures reach KRW 167.7 trillion across 1,622 companies and 73,000+ workers, with 36% in R&D roles and ~68% aged 30-49. Four of the world's top-20 game studios by revenue are headquartered here.

Conclusions

A September 2025 TechCrunch analysis found Pangyo has struggled to attract significant foreign direct investment or international talent at scale, citing language, working-culture norms and limited global partnership activity; revenue is overwhelmingly driven by a handful of large domestic companies, leaving the cluster's global ambitions partially unrealised.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Developed and managed by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, via the Pangyo Techno Valley Management Foundation

Conditions for success

  • Large-scale, government-led land and infrastructure investment
  • Co-location of major domestic firms alongside SME tenants and international corporate R&D centres
  • Phased expansion (Phase 1 then Phase 2) to sustain growth

Common failure modes

  • Limited success attracting foreign direct investment or international talent, due to language and working-culture barriers
  • Revenue concentrated in a handful of large domestic firms rather than broad-based growth

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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