June 11, 2001

The Investment In IT Industry Continues To Be Aggressive

“The IT industry is not in a slump,” claimed Lou Hoffman, president of Hoffman Korea. The Hoffman Agency is a PR agency specialized in the IT industry and is headquartered in the United States’ Silicon Valley, Calif.

Hoffman, who delivered a speech on PR activities for the global IT industry at COEX, on June 7, said, “People seem to feel the IT industry is relatively sluggish compared with the overheated industry last year. But, in fact, investment in the IT industry continues to be aggressive.”

He compared the total amount of venture capital investment flown into the Silicon Valley in the third quarter of 1999, and in the first quarter of 2001, which was recorded at $3.3 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively. Although the two figures were very similar, he said they were interpreted differently when reported in the San Jose Mercury News. Two years ago, the San Jose Mercury News ran a story headlined, “IT industry exploding,” and another article one month ago headlined, “IT industry in a slump.”

The Hoffman Agency is operating five offices in Asia alone. Its Asian offices are in Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“I first visited Korea in 1994 when The Hoffman Agency won the PR project for the launch of MPEG chip in the U.S. market, from the former Hyundai Electronics,” said Hoffman. “At that time, I was fascinated by the potential of the Asian market. Since then, Hoffman has begun to enter the Asian market in earnest.”

One worthy note about Hoffman’s career is that he was a journalist. He worked with El Independiente, a regional Hispanic newspaper, for a year and a half. “In the early 1980s, there was an accident where a policeman shot an unarmed teenager dead, and I interviewed the chief of the police station. He seemed to feel my questions were too aggressive and shouted at me, ‘What on earth do you know about our society?’ That served as momentum to change my job.”

After that, Hoffman traveled around the nation for two years and settled in San Jose, Calif., where IT companies began to crowd. And in 1987, he established The Hoffman Agency, a PR agency specializing in the IT industry.

Back to top