Competition cools for expanded 'Everyone's Startup' program despite record applicants

The second round of the government's Everyone's Startup Project drew a record number of applicants, but the competition ratio fell from the first round — a sign that enthusiasm has not kept pace with the program's rapid expansion.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, 92,838 people applied during the second-round recruitment period, which ran from Aug. 20 through Thursday. Of those, 80,764 applied in the general and technology tracks, while 12,074 applied in the local track.

The raw applicant count surpassed the first round, which drew 62,944 — an increase of 29,894. The ministry said the figure "far exceeded the final applicant count from the first round, confirming an even stronger entrepreneurial spirit."

When the expanded number of slots is factored in, however, the picture looks different. The ministry doubled the number of participants to be selected — from 5,000 to 10,000 — but second-round applicants grew by only 47.5 percent. As a result, the competition ratio dropped from roughly 12.6-to-1 in the first round to about 9.3-to-1 in the second. While total applicants hit an all-time high, demand did not fully match the scale of the expansion.

The government has been rapidly scaling up the program following the first round's strong reception. This year, the project received a combined 263.1 billion won ($192 million) — 62.8 billion won from the original budget and 200.3 billion won through a supplementary budget. Next year's proposed government budget allocates 441.1 billion won for the program, an increase of 178 billion won, or 67.7 percent, over this year.

Despite the surge in fiscal commitment, the program has attracted somewhat less policy attention than it did in its first round. During the first round, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook — then serving as minister of SMEs and Startups — personally toured university campuses nationwide to promote the program. With the minister's post now vacant, First Vice Minister Noh Yong-seok has taken over the campus tour, though the visits have drawn comparatively less public attention.

A personal data breach also cast a shadow over the second round. After participants' personal information was leaked, the ministry moved to strengthen its data security measures. The combination of the minister's absence and the data breach created a noticeably different atmosphere for the second-round recruitment compared with the first.

Participation did broaden in some respects. Applicants from outside the Greater Seoul area accounted for 63.3 percent of the total, up 9.9 percentage points from 53.4 percent in the first round. Youth participation also rose: applicants in their teens made up 15.4 percent of the total and those in their 20s accounted for 36.4 percent, together exceeding half of all applicants. The share of applicants aged 39 or younger reached 71.8 percent, up 3.8 percentage points from 68.0 percent in the first round.

The Everyone's Startup Project provides step-by-step support for people with ideas who want to try starting a business. With the government set to sharply increase the budget again next year, a key challenge going forward will be sustaining broad public interest and ensuring that participation translates into actual business launches and growth. "We will provide even stronger support so that these challenges lead to real startups and growth, nurturing the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs," said Cho Gyeong-won, director general for startup policy at the ministry.