Signal Only one of Korea's ten largest listed companies was founded after 1990

Summary

The government points out that among Korea's ten largest companies by market capitalisation only one is a firm that emerged after the 1990s. If affiliates of large business groups are excluded, the count falls to none. In the United States, six of the ten largest companies are firms that appeared after 1990. The government links this contrast to a lack of new growth industries after heavy industry in the 1970s and 1980s and semiconductor-led IT from the 1990s. It reads the absence of young firms at the top as a sign that technological innovation has stalled while China catches up.