SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – In the week following Han Kang’s historic Nobel Prize in Literature win, South Korean bookstores reported a remarkable 40% increase in sales, with older readers leading the buying surge. According to data analyzed by BC Card, major bookstore chains, both online and offline including Kyobo Book Centre, saw their sales [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – What kinds of wine do shoppers who spend more than 100 million won annually at department stores prefer? According to data released on October 23 by Galleria Department Store, Burgundy wines and champagne dominate their luxury wine purchases. An analysis of sales from The Vino 494, the upscale wine boutique [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – In a parliamentary audit on October 21, Ham Yoon-sik, vice president of Woowa Brothers, defended his company’s controversial fee increases by pointing to similar moves by competitor Coupang Eats, highlighting growing tensions in South Korea’s competitive food delivery market. During the National Assembly’s political affairs committee audit of the Fair [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – The popularity of Netflix’s cooking competition show “Culinary Class Wars” has ignited a boom in home cooking equipment sales in South Korea, according to recent data from a major e-commerce platform. Gmarket, an online marketplace owned by Shinsegae Group, reported on October 20 that sales of kitchen-related items have skyrocketed [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — SPC Group, a South Korean food and beverage company, said Tuesday its bakery brand Paris Baguette has opened its 600th overseas outlet in Canada as part of its global expansion strategy. SPC has opened 30 outlets in North America this year, bringing the total in the mainstay markets to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Chinese scalpers are illegally acquiring Korean user account information to purchase tickets for hard-to-book events and concerts in South Korea, potentially reaping significant profits from reselling them on the black market, according to a South Korean lawmaker. The allegations, raised during a parliamentary audit on October 10, has sparked criticism [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – A new convenience in South Korea’s bustling alcohol market is raising concerns about underage drinking. ‘Smart order’ services, which allow customers to order alcohol online and pick it up at offline stores, are under fire for potentially lax age verification procedures, a consumer watchdog group reported on October 10. The [...]
POHANG, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – The coastal city of Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province is actively pursuing Costco, the American multinational wholesale corporation, in a bid to boost its local economy and improve living conditions for its residents. However, the potential location of the store has become a topic of debate among citizens and officials [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Three key South Korean government bodies announced on October 9 that they will initiate a bidding process for a consultancy project aimed at establishing guidelines for a Digital Product Passport (DPP) response platform. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Digital Platform Government Committee, and the Ministry of Science [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s job market presented a mixed picture in the first half of 2024, with significant job losses in construction and retail sectors contrasting with growth in social welfare and software development, according to a report released by Statistics Korea on October 8. The “Regional Employment Survey: Industrial and Occupational Characteristics [...]