Influencers and YouTube e-Commerce
The power of online influencers is exploding and people’s relationship with YouTube and other social networks has drastically evolved in the last decade. We are working in partnership with a major production company in South Korea and their investors, which enables us to work with mega influencers and social network promotional events. This has proven to be one of the most effective routes to successful sales in South Korea and China in recent years.
The Chinese influencer market has a special name “Wang-Hong” and is a multi billion dollar market. This is fairly new and closed up territory to many foreign companies because they use certain social network platforms that are only available within China. In this unique culture, knowing the right people plays a vital part in gaining access to these influencers and their e-commerce activities. We work with Joong-Kyung Corporation, a Korean company that has been doing business in China since 2010 and directly organises product placements with these “Wang-Hong” influencers.
E-commerce Platforms
There are a number of giant platforms in Asia that are equivalent to Amazon. South Korea and China stand out as unique markets among the developed countries, where Amazon is not the biggest e-commerce platform for the general public. South Koreans prefer to use the local providers such as Coupang, GMarket, 11thStreet, Auction.kr and Interpark, which remain the top 5 e-commerce platforms. Coupang is worth around USD 9 billion and GMarket was acquired by eBay in 2009 and an incredible 64% of the Korean population have used their services. Having this local specific knowledge of the commercial trends plays a vital role in the success of a new product.
Wadiz
WADIZ is South Korea’s answer to Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Launched in 2012, WADIZ is the largest crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs and startups in South Korea with a 87% domestic market share. Since their establishment in 2012 WADIZ has generated around USD 1.8 billion in revenue and in 2019 alone saw 10,000 product launches.
As the fifth largest e-commerce nation, the trend is picking up and it is a matter of time that this form of pre-order shopping becomes a new norm for the Korean millennials. WADIZ is not just a crowdfunding platform but the place for new products to test the market and get valuable feedback. Naturally, it is also a perfect place for large corporations to find great products to invest in.
Exclusive Employees Platforms
NEXPORT has access to special shopping malls that are exclusively open to the employees of mega corporations, such as LG, SK and Hanhwa corporations. This is a very unique platform to South Korea and serves as a niche market that is extremely effective for certain product types.
