2030 Female Consumers Create 'Unicorn'

Unicorn Candidates Including Baedal Minjok, Idus, MyRealTrip, and Zigzag Show High Proportion of Female Users

Seoul Insadong Ssamziegil's 'Idus' Specialty Store

'2030 women' consumers are nurturing domestic startups into 'unicorn companies' (unlisted ventures valued at over 1 trillion KRW). The primary user base of startups that have recently grown rapidly and emerged as unicorn candidates consists of women in their 20s and 30s.

According to Backpacker, which operates the online handmade market 'Idus,' 73% of the total traffic currently comes from female users. Among these female users, over 70% are in their 20s and 30s. Among all users, women in their 20s account for 25%, and women in their 30s also make up 25%. More than half of Idus's 2.6 million monthly users are '2030 women.' Notably, Idus is experiencing significant growth. Idus, where about 14,000 sellers are active across more than 30 categories including leather crafts, fashion accessories, pottery, interior items, natural soaps, various handmade foods, and pet snacks, recorded a transaction volume of 116 billion KRW last year. Since its launch in 2014, it achieved 50% of its cumulative transaction volume of 210 billion KRW last year alone. Based on this, Idus is emerging as a unicorn candidate. Kim Dong-hwan, CEO of Backpacker, said, "We will continue to research and strive to grow into a global platform."

The same applies to 'MyRealTrip,' a travel product brokerage platform. In the early days of the service in 2012, many users were men around their 40s with the purchasing power to pay for travel products, but recently, the proportion of female users in their 20s and 30s has approached 50%. Based on this, MyRealTrip's annual transaction volume reached 360 billion KRW last year, more than tripling compared to the previous year. It was also selected as a prospective unicorn company supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation. Lee Dong-gun, CEO of MyRealTrip, emphasized, "As a domestic native company leading independent travel, we will provide the best service with a sense of mission."

'Zigzag,' operated by Croquis.com, has established itself as the application with the largest user base in the fashion and apparel market based on its female user base. Due to its nature as a collection service of women's shopping malls based on Dongdaemun clothing, 99% of Zigzag's users are female. Among them, women in their 20s make up 50%, the largest group, followed by teenagers at 17%, and women in their 30s at 14%. Again, women in their 20s and 30s form the core of the user base. Currently, about 3,700 companies are registered on Zigzag with 6.8 million products listed, and an average of 2.5 million users access the platform monthly.

Elegant Brothers, which was acquired by Germany's Delivery Hero last year with a corporate valuation exceeding 4 trillion KRW, is another case of rapid growth supported by female users. According to analysis by big data company IGAWorks, in November last year, the user base of 'Baedal Minjok,' a service operated by Elegant Brothers, consisted of 56.13% women, which is more than 10 percentage points higher than the 43.87% male users. By age group, users in their 30s accounted for 36.2%, and those in their 20s made up 30.6%, higher than other age groups. A venture industry insider said, "There is talk that lifestyle services based on new technologies must capture female consumers to succeed," adding, "The driving force behind nurturing startups into unicorns comes from 2030 women consumers."