Lisa Ryu is a marketing manager in PayPal’s Seoul, South Korea office. She is only one of two employees in that office and works with her colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region to serve the customers in Korea. She is celebrating the winter games in Pyeongchang with her family.
What do you do at PayPal?
I am a marketing manager in PayPal’s Seoul office in South Korea, working with teams in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically with Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. I joined PayPal when the office opened in July 2014. There are only two people in this local office, so I think we are the smallest office in PayPal. I work with many people around the world especially in Hong Kong, as well as the operations team in Shanghai, the marketing team in Singapore and even a language manager in San Jose who supports Korean customers.
What drew you to the job in such a small office at PayPal?
I had experienced PayPal as a customer and found the payment industry to be very interesting. At the time I was using PayPal a lot for purchasing items from overseas and felt PayPal had an exciting story. I think that as long as there are people in commerce, there is business here. Even though there are just two of us in the Seoul office, to me PayPal is a really global company.
Lisa with a few of her international colleagues in GyeongJu, Korea last fall
South Korea is hosting the winter games in Pyeongchang. Tell us about the level of excitement in Pyeongchang.
We are all very excited about the winter games here. The mountain area where the activities are being held is always very cold, but this year is much colder than normal. We’re hoping it warms up for the athletes!
We are especially excited that the North and South Korea hockey teams will be playing together on the women's hockey team. I know there have been tensions between the two nations, but for me the winter games have helped to ease those tensions and give the two sides a way to communicate with each other as one nation. That has made more people here excited about the winter games.
We will be attending some of the sporting events at the winter games with the whole family. My daughter is especially excited about this. The winter games are not too far from Seoul, we can drive to Pyeongchang in around two or three hours. There is also an express train that takes less than two hours to get there.
For those that have not been to Seoul, what is it like?
Seoul is a very complex city. It’s very busy and modern and a defining feature is the big river that runs through the middle called the Han river or Hangang river. The river gives the city a unique view and there are several parks around it for people to relax and enjoy. Seoul a very historical city that has more than 2,000 years of history. In the middle of the city there are palaces and temples and even high mountains. You will also find a mix of modern and old traditional buildings all around. People that are not from here might find it interesting to see these mixed cultures in one city.
What is the biggest misunderstanding that people have about the region?
For the Asia-Pacific region, people misunderstand how big it is and how many countries there are here. In the Asia market, there are super millennial customers and digital natives buying from all over the world using PayPal. The business here has grown very fast. We are growing double digits and we’re hoping the South Korea office will expand.