In a globalising era, there have been many attempts to explain the processes of globalisation in urban studies. Beyond a global/world city hypothesis which mainly deals with macro‐actors and top‐down processes, this paper explores a grounded globalisation with the emergence of ethnic entrepreneurs who are rarely considered in global city research. We analyse business activities of Nigerian and Pakistani entrepreneurs within the district of Itaewon in Seoul, South Korea by examining two specific points: first, the division of ethnic entrepreneurs into two types: export‐oriented and import‐oriented, and second, the local‐based transnational connections between home and host countries. We argue that the spontaneous transnational connections by ethnic entrepreneurs are an example of globalisation ‘from below’. In contrast to the homogenising Asian global cities, globalisation from below is crucial to understand the various forms of Asian global cities.

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