With the rise of the untact era, non-face-to-face consumption has surged, intensifying competition in the online commerce market as new companies continuously enter the field.
As a result, the variety of online commerce products has diversified, increasing the need to provide differentiated shopping experiences online. Especially with platform companies like Instagram and Naver expanding into the shopping business, it has become challenging for online commerce companies and brands to establish effective response strategies.
Therefore, communication with customers through content is becoming increasingly important, and 'live commerce' is emerging as a breakthrough for online commerce companies and brands in the untact era.
Live commerce combines live streaming, where content is viewed in real time, with commerce, enabling real-time interaction and immediate purchase, making it a new form of marketing channel. In 2020, the Chinese live commerce market was valued at approximately 108 trillion KRW, and 28% of U.S. companies plan to utilize live streaming within a year, indicating that services linking live streaming and commerce will continue to increase.
Mobidoo, established in 2013, launched its live commerce platform in May 2019. It currently has over 100,000 monthly active users. Notably, in April 2020, it released Sourceplex, a B2B dedicated solution for brands and distributors.
Sourceplex is a web cloud-based platform that can be easily integrated into existing online malls. Lotte Department Store's 100LIVE is a representative example.
Starting from this, Sourceplex has expanded its customer base widely with live commerce solutions used by SK Magic Show, LG U+'s Usap Live, LF Mall, LG Household & Health Care, E-Land, Hansome, and others, making it a domestic leader in live commerce solutions. The rapid growth of Sourceplex immediately after its launch is due to the rapidly growing demand for Direct to Customer communication, where brands and distributors want to interact directly with customers.
Distributors and brands centered on their own malls are considering ways to communicate closely with customers in the untact era and to provide personalized recommendations and curation services that customers desire. Live commerce offers product experience and communication opportunities with customers, thus providing the answer.
Especially, building such content services directly requires enormous costs and time. However, Sourceplex is a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution that can be applied immediately without the need for construction. From the brand’s perspective, this allows them to focus on differentiating content rather than on building the system.
Source’s vision is to become a global content commerce platform connecting brands and customers through content. Through the Source Live app, anyone from one-person businesses to large brands can join and broadcast live, and corporate clients who want live commerce based on their own malls can adopt the Sourceplex solution.
Recently, Source has also been providing content planning, production, and filming services through Source Maker (Source Live’s show hosts). Source, which has secured a diverse customer base from department stores to fashion/beauty brands and telecommunications companies, plans to strengthen its capabilities as a technology company and eventually offer solutions to analyze content and increase purchase conversion rates.
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