(image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — As the dominance of the top three players — Naver Corp., Coupang Inc. and SSG.com — is solidifying in the South Korean e-commerce market, latecomers are adopting drastic differentiation and transformation strategies.
Wemakeprice Inc., a local open market operator, added a special button that is connected to SSG.com to the main screen of its app on January 3.
By the first quarter of this year, Wemakeprice intends to display links connected to the official websites of sellers with placement in its search results.
The primary factor behind the company’s latest move is that it is attempting to transform itself into an e-commerce search engine.
Wemakeprice hopes to become an e-commerce search engine that people visit to search for Internet shopping information just like they do for general information through Google or Naver.
The online shopping mall 11st, is on track to transform itself into a shopping social commerce business. It is offering customers’ video reviews in a similar format as Instagram.
More than 20,000 video reviews featuring customers’ faces and voices are uploaded on a daily basis.
11st is also focusing on cultivating ‘shopping influencers.’ Last week, it launched the ‘tipkok’ service that allows customers to share their shopping tips in a text and video format.
TMON Inc., which became famous for selling special discount items during specific time periods, is turning itself into a marketing company.
After searching for companies and agricultural producers to join its platform, TMON is acting as a PR agency to promote their products.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
