SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Shinsegae Group has announced a strategic partnership with China’s Alibaba Group, forming a joint venture to bolster its position in South Korea’s highly competitive e-commerce market. The new entity, “Grand Opus Holding,” will launch in 2025 with equal ownership between Shinsegae and Alibaba’s international subsidiary. The partnership integrates Shinsegae’s [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – CJ OnStyle, a major South Korean home shopping channel, has cut ties with three cable TV operators—D’Live, ABN (Areum Broadcasting Network), and CCS Chungbuk Broadcasting—after negotiations over broadcasting fees collapsed. The unprecedented move has drawn attention, with industry insiders attributing the decision to CJ OnStyle’s strategic pivot toward mobile [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – CJ OnStyle, a major South Korean online retailer, has identified “newmiliar” as the defining consumer trend of 2024, describing a preference for products that combine familiarity with innovative twists. The term “newmiliar,” a portmanteau of “new” and “familiar,” emerged from the company’s analysis of sales data across its most popular [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is taking action against Coupang, Naver, and Market Kurly for allegedly hindering consumers from canceling their paid memberships. Coupang, in particular, faces additional scrutiny for using deceptive “dark patterns” in its membership pricing and cancellation processes. Coupang’s “Wow Membership” program allegedly made mid-term cancellations [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — One in three South Korean consumers has experienced issues while shopping online, a government survey showed Friday, underscoring the need for improved consumer protection from e-commerce operators. The survey, conducted on 2,000 local consumers, showed that 29.4 percent of the people shopping on local e-commerce platforms and 28.3 percent [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean regulators have blocked nearly 2,000 product listings from Chinese e-commerce platforms AliExpress and Temu since May, citing safety violations that threaten consumer well-being. This move underscores the growing challenges posed by cross-border e-commerce amid its meteoric rise in the country. A Surge in Unsafe Products From May to [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s e-commerce market is growing at a fast pace and is expected to grow 10.2 percent on-year to surpass 164 trillion won (US$118 billion) this year, a global market research firm said Wednesday. The Korean e-commerce market is set to reach 164.3 trillion won in 2024, up from [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – In a significant move that cements his position among South Korea’s most successful entrepreneurs, Bom Kim, the founder and executive chairman of Coupang, has announced plans for a major stock sale, fourteen years after founding the company and three years after its landmark NYSE debut. Kim, who moved to the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean online high-fashion gallery jente has launched its official global service to make inroads into markets in different regions, its officials said Monday. According to the officials, jente’s global platform with English language services is now available for access across the world. The platform will feature products from [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – The South Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated regulatory action against AliExpress, the popular Chinese online shopping platform, over allegations of false advertising. On September 30, the FTC sent a report detailing potential sanctions to an AliExpress affiliate responsible for product sales. The commission determined that the company’s advertisements, [...]