{"id":256676,"date":"2024-08-23T23:15:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T23:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/23\/south-koreas-fertility-problem-no-joke-says-gopizza-founder-jay-lim\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:11:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:11:51","slug":"south-koreas-fertility-problem-no-joke-says-gopizza-founder-jay-lim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/23\/south-koreas-fertility-problem-no-joke-says-gopizza-founder-jay-lim\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea’s fertility problem ‘no joke,’ says Gopizza founder Jay Lim"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As a university student in Singapore over a decade ago, Jay Lim was frustrated: He couldn\u2019t get a pizza just for himself. The lack of \u201cpersonal pizza options\u201d drove him to create Gopizza, a pizza start-up, on his return to South Korea in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Gopizza, with its fast service and bite-sized pizzas, won an audience among hungry Koreans. But just three years after founding the business, Lim was already looking overseas. The Gopizza founder first went to India, and then to Southeast Asia, in order to give his business the best chance to survive.<\/p>\n

The reason? South Korea\u2019s record low<\/a> birth rate. \u201cThe fertility rate is no joke,\u201d Lim says. \u201cThree hundred thousand people are disappearing every year, so it\u2019s a huge issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korea has the world\u2019s lowest fertility rate, at 0.72 births per woman in 2023. That means, barring some change<\/a>, Korea\u2019s consumer market is shrinking. <\/p>\n

To make things more difficult, South Korea\u2019s food sector is intensely competitive.\u00a0\u201cWe have a vastly shrinking market and at the same time the highest competition in the world statistically. That leads to investor doubts or skepticism in our industry, which means we can\u2019t get investment, which means we can\u2019t grow fast enough.\u201d Lim explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gopizza goes global<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Gopizza claims its startup is South Korea\u2019s 11th-largest pizza brand, citing its own research using data registered with Korea\u2019s Fair Trade Commission. The startup also says it\u2019s the leading South Korean pizza brand globally, based on store count.<\/p>\n

Gopizza first expanded to India in 2019, just three years after its founding. The startup now has over 50 outlets in the country and a menu catered for the Indian market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gopizza is also in Singapore, its second-largest global market after India. Lim says expanding to Singapore was done with investors in mind: Succeeding in Singapore, a small country with a competiitve market, would prove to investors that Gopizza had potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Gopizza<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gopizza is now Singapore\u2019s third-largest pizza brand, Lim claims. The founder credits the startup\u2019s success in Singapore for a $10 million investment by Thai conglomerate CP All in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gopizza is also looking to expand into Indonesia and Thailand. Lim hopes to have his pizzas served in the latter country\u2019s 7-Eleven convenience stores, operated by his backer CP All.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting Gopizza<\/h2>\n

The idea of Gopizza came from Lim\u2019s frustration at the lack of one-person pizza options while he was a student at Singapore Management University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon returning to Korea, Lim worked part-time in a pizza restaurant, and determined that time was wasted waiting for the dough to rise and baking the pizza.<\/p>\n

Lim decided to use partially-baked dough to save time. Gopizza now has its own proprietary dough, which Lim calls an \u201cimportant component\u201d of the business.<\/p>\n

Gopizza is also investing in an AI-powered oven, which it calls the \u201cGoven.\u201d The oven scores pizzas based on toppings, allowing Gopizza executives to track consistency across different outlets globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lim argues that the AI oven could be a new revenue stream for Gopizza if the startup can convince other pizza chains that the \u201cGoven\u201d delivers results. \u201cThat\u2019s the next chapter. It\u2019s becoming like a tech company,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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