South Korea's retailers scramble to ride the live commerce wave

Online platforms such as Naver and Kakao have joined in, ahead of retailers.

Amidst the rise of "live commerce", or TV home shopping-style mobile shopping, South Korea’s major retailers are scrambling to jump on the bandwagon, Korea Bizwire has reported.

Lee Sang-ho, CEO of SK Telecom-owned online shopping platform 11st, said in a shareholder meeting that the online portal would establish an open-type live commerce infrastructure in the second half of this year.

At the same time, Coupang, which launched a live commerce service earlier this year, is already operating an open-type service enabling ordinary persons to sell products through live broadcasting once they complete a registration procedure.

TV Home shopping companies, which have a business model similar to live commerce, are also placing more emphasis on live commerce by using show hosts. Ahead of the retailers, online platforms such as Naver and Kakao have also already entered the live commerce market.