A Journey of Creating an IR Website for an IPO-Launched Company: FADU IR Website

CLIENT

DATE

SERVICE

INDUSTRY

FADU

2023.11

CXUX Consulting, Human-Centered Creative Design

IT & Tech

The ‘Technological Edge’ is often mentioned in the market when evaluating a company. However, more people pay attention when the discussion goes beyond technology to 'potential and vision'. Saltcake aimed to capture all these stories on FADU's IR (Investor Relations) website - how intense is the competition with global market shares like Samsung and SK Hynix; What are the philosophy and values of its business activities; How many people are paying attention to FADU.

FADU is a fabless semiconductor company innovating flash storage technology and supply chains used in large data centers and high-performance servers. Since 2015, the company has been dedicated to semiconductor technology innovation to meet the diverse data demands of rapidly growing companies in South Korea and Silicon Valley in the United States.

Stimulating Corporate Growth through Transparent Communication

The IR website is a vital platform for conveying the various facets of a company. It honestly shares stories of success and pride, as well as failures and perseverance. Proud information is shared on days of outstanding financial performance, but disappointing news is also conveyed when stock prices fall.

The IR website goes beyond simply transmitting information; it serves as a crucial indicator showing each company’s vision and future prospects. Through it, opinions are gathered from investors and external stakeholders, and these insights are incorporated into management. As a result, the IR website has become an essential tool in facilitating investment attraction and setting strategic directions, with over 97% of listed companies actively using it.

The IR website is a key communication tool that conveys the transparency and reliability of a company to investors. The financial information, management performance, and investment strategies provided through this platform are communicated clearly and transparently, minimizing misunderstandings about the company and maximizing trust. Accurate and timely shared information promotes a strong trust relationship and ongoing connection with investors. Moreover, it plays a vital role in building and maintaining a positive image of the company, which is essential for enhancing communication with investors during the company’s continuous development and growth.

FADU has been attracting attention for its innovative semiconductor technology and growth potential in the industry even before its IPO. It has been introduced to the general public interested in stock investments through the media and social media, solidifying its position in the market. Following the IPO, FADU’s stock price surged, reflecting these expectations in tangible results. This has highlighted the need for the company to develop more sophisticated strategies for effective communication with domestic and foreign investors.

IR Website, Getting Ready for Investors

For Investor Relations Officers (IROs), the IR website is a crucial communication channel. It plays a central role in conveying the company’s comprehensive management situation and investment value, going beyond merely providing legally required information. This integrated investment narrative communicates the overall story of the company, helping investors to clearly understand the company’s situation and make informed investment decisions.

Table – Investment Narrative Composition within IR Website

After successfully completing its IPO, FADU wanted to strengthen their investment narrative through the IR website. This narrative includes their vision and mission, management philosophy and values, ESG initiatives and leadership, as well as stories of innovation and growth. It also communicates the company’s long-term value to investors, including financial performance and prospects of key businesses.

Just three months after the IPO listing, FADU sought to develop a UX/UI strategy with the help of experienced partners like Saltcake, to effectively roll out this investor communication strategy, and the UX/UI experts at Saltcake designed the FADU IR website with a long-term perspective in mind, ensuring it provides an optimized user experience for investors.

Table – The Effectiveness of IR Website
* IR magazine, EY(Ernst & Young)

In this project, Saltcake analyzed the trends of both domestic and international IR websites and adopted a UX design that enhances the user experience for their main target audience. This meant providing a concise and accessible interface, and quickly and clearly delivering important corporate information. Such a UX/UI strategy played a crucial role in enabling investors to easily understand information about the company and build the trust necessary for making investment decisions.

A Journey of Creating an IR Website for an IPO-Launched Company

Considering the characteristics of the semiconductor market, FADU cannot neglect building relationships with foreign investors. Particularly to support contract signings and investment attraction with increasing overseas tech companies through activities in Silicon Valley, FADU has developed an IR website UX/UI optimized for foreign investors as well.

According to the analysis of domestic and international IR websites conducted by the UX/UI consultant team at Saltcake, there is a distinct difference in the user interface flow on the main pages. While most Korean companies structure their main pages with visualizations of financial performance and key indicators to convey information to visitors, foreign companies tend to place recent press releases and reports at the forefront to attract attention.

Group 63399620
Group 63399624

IR Website Best Practice
* Saltcake – 2023

Domestic companies, especially, prefer to clearly demonstrate their performance compared to the past by presenting management results and stock information in charts and figures. This approach, used by companies like Samsung, SK, and Kakao on their IR websites, helps visitors quickly understand important information. On the other hand, international companies like Facebook and Tesla emphasize direct communication with investors on their IR websites. Their main pages focus on key schedules and corporate activity news, and they actively provide content like webcasts targeted at investors.

Considering these different approaches, FADU has adopted a strategy that integrates the methods of foreign companies while emphasizing the visualization of key information on their own IR website. By making reports and press releases easily accessible from the main page, FADU has strengthened communication with investors and increased accessibility to the latest information, thereby building effective communication.

Understanding the characteristics of the website’s visitors is a key step in determining the direction of an IR website. Generally, IR websites are visited by people interested in investing or investors looking for ongoing investment opportunities. This implies that the website design should be more refined and adopt a simple layout, emphasizing the importance of providing investors with quick and accurate information. To achieve this, Saltcake adopted a user-centric approach, analyzing global IR website patterns and structures, and designed the main page with the visitor’s convenience as the top priority.

Table – IR Website Best Practice

Accessibility of information is one of the key considerations in terms of user convenience. Especially in an IR website, it is very important to provide trust by ensuring that all information is transparent and easily accessible without any hidden details. For example, the ‘Accordion UI’ on the page allows users to easily view the information they need without having to navigate to a separate page, thus reducing unnecessary clicks. The ‘Rectangular Box UI’ visually conveys the solidity and reliability of the semiconductor field, providing a consistent user experience.

IR Communication Parter, Saltcake

Many companies are aiming for an IPO (Initial Public Offering). An IPO is a significant milestone for a company, allowing it to enter the capital market and secure a broader investor base. While the focus may have been on customer-centric management activities before the IPO, post-IPO, the company’s actions become equally important to investors. Thus, smooth communication and trust-building with investors are essential, necessitating effective communication channels like IR websites.

IR websites go beyond simply providing financial information; they effectively convey the company’s vision, strategy, market position, and future growth potential. Saltcake serves as a strategic partner in addressing these challenges, helping to clearly and effectively communicate the unique story of the company and build close communication with investors. Additionally, our expertise in CX and BX will be greatly beneficial for the strategic communication and branding needed after the IPO.

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