Dreaming of 'Short Clip Commerce' That Changes Gen Z's Wardrobe

Interview with Cha Joo-hwan, CEO of Short Clip Fashion Platform 'Clonet Corporation'

Cha Juhwan, CEO of Clonet Corporation.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The popularity of 15-second "short clips" launched by TikTok is soaring. Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), staying at home has become a daily routine for the public, and short clips have established themselves as essential content. According to a survey by global app analytics firm Sensor Tower, the most downloaded mobile app worldwide in the first quarter of this year was TikTok, with 315 million downloads. To target Generation Z (aged 13 to 24), who are familiar with short clips, Google is also preparing a short clip service aiming for release by the end of this year. As videos emerge as an efficient business tool, a young entrepreneur is challenging the media commerce market, which is dominated by YouTube-based long clips and streaming, with fashion short clips. He is Cha Juhwan (26), CEO of Clonet Corporation, an early member of TikTok and former head of fashion content.

The online fashion shopping mall industry, which has been photo-centric, is recently focusing on videos. One video provides more information than dozens of photos. However, for Generation Z, who are accustomed to short and entertaining clips, long clips of 3 to 5 minutes do not lead to re-watching. CEO Cha paid attention to this tendency of customers. "The main consumers of short clips are more accustomed to watching short and diverse videos during leisure time (spare time) rather than spending time watching videos (making time)." His analysis led to the founding of a short clip fashion mall with the concept #SSS (Save money, Save time, So Clonet), reflecting the company's character.

With a dream of starting a fashion business, Cha went to study in China after graduating from middle school and gained various experiences in the local shopping industry. Judging that the online market trend was moving towards videos and 3D rather than photos, he joined ByteDance, a Chinese startup that launched TikTok. As an early member of TikTok, which sparked a global boom, he was in charge of fashion user content and discovered the potential of the short clip market using media commerce. Cha said, "There was a strong interest among people in their teens and twenties in the clothes, shoes, and accessories appearing in influencer videos. The action rate relative to views, sales relative to advertising, and purchase conversion rate all performed well. The fact that commerce had not yet been attempted on TikTok also presented potential."

If you watch a product try-on short clip of about 15 seconds and swipe the video to the left, detailed information and a purchase page will be provided. Photo by Clonet

After resigning and analyzing the domestic online clothing market for about a year, CEO Cha launched the mobile app "Clonet," which combines short clip content and commerce services. He explained, "We moved away from the user interface (UI) of scrolling through photos and text and structured it so that short clips edited to about 15 seconds of wearing shots can be browsed in a UI similar to a wiki." Another strength of Clonet is naturally inducing three-step clicks for users familiar with clicking hashtags. Cha added, "When watching a video for the first time, the first step is looking at the face and appearance, the second step is observing movement and background, and the third step is naturally viewing the clothes and background the person is wearing. By naturally swiping left while watching the video, users can access product information and exploration, encouraging simple and convenient shopping."

Clonet currently has 150 partners, over 30,000 products, and more than 4,000 short clip videos, but short clips are still unfamiliar in the domestic commerce market, and sellers face uneven production conditions, causing difficulties. CEO Cha said, "Our goal is to create a successful case of short clips that has never been recognized in Korea and make it a trend. To improve sellers' filming conditions, we provide shooting guidelines and individual studio spaces, and uploaded videos go through the hands of experts we have to be uploaded as professional content, enhancing quality."

Recently, Clonet signed contracts with large multi-channel networks (MCNs) and started producing influencer short clips. Clonet's goal is to become a short clip platform, not just a short clip shopping mall. CEO Cha stated, "Rather than competing with open markets and all-in-one apps, we believe it is right to produce short clips ourselves and supply them to mobile commerce. Our long-term goal is to build a platform through developing short clip production programs."