'5 Trillion Market T-Commerce' Ignites Fierce Battle for No.1 Position

SK Stoa, Personalized TV Content
Service Possibly Launching in Q2 Next Year
KTH Chasing AI-Recommended Broadcasts by 2022
Shifts to Mid-Long Term MCN Strategy
Collaborates with Influencers to Boost Content Competition

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] In the rapidly growing data shopping (T-commerce) market, valued at 5 trillion won, competition among industry leaders over the utilization of next-generation IT technologies is fierce. SK Stoa is focusing on big data-based personalized services, while KTH (K Shopping) is pursuing a TV-style multi-channel network (MCN) strategy as a mid- to long-term plan.

SK Stoa Pursues Personalized Customized Broadcasting

According to industry sources on the 27th, SK Stoa plans to launch personalized TV content services and marketing promotions as early as the second quarter of next year, or by the third quarter at the latest. Through the recently developed viewing data analysis program 'SK Stoa ON Vision 1.0 version,' they have accumulated customer data over six months, and by the 2.0 version next year, they intend to offer customized services reflecting individual customer preferences. By the 3.0 version in 2022, they also plan to broadcast consumer-tailored programming based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

SK Stoa plans to refine data analysis and purchase prediction technologies by combining household-level data from the existing 'SK Broadband' set-top boxes with logs and data accumulated in the cloud since the launch of SK Stoa ON. In particular, the newly developed SK Stoa ON Vision system will address technical shortcomings by analyzing actual sales per viewer and click counts. After enhancing the precisely analyzed subscriber-based data with de-identified personal information, they will present optimized personalized broadcasting.

KTH Pursues Diversity through MCN

KTH has been on alert after losing the top spot to SK Stoa last year and dropping to second place behind Shinsegae TV Shopping this year. K Shopping introduced personalized services based on viewer data in 2015 but recently halted them to shift its strategic focus to MCN (multi-channel network). Given the growing influence of YouTube and other influencers, the intention is to incorporate this into T-commerce. Collaborating with Seoul Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) and the fashion industry, they are creating a 'living room fashion show' stage. They are also establishing exclusive celebrity shops for famous figures in various fields, such as stylist Yoon Seul-gi for stars, Chef Oh Se-deuk from 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,' and Director Lee Woong-jong from 'TV Animal Farm.' Various individual creators will provide on-demand video (VOD) content streamed 24 hours a day to captivate the 20s and 30s demographic.

The downside is that the immediate revenue increase effect is limited compared to the costs involved in strengthening content with influencers. KTH has a long-term plan to secure customer data centered on MCN and then reintroduce personalized broadcasting.

T-commerce Market Estimated at 5.4 Trillion Won This Year

Experts view the competition among T-commerce companies in big data technology positively. In the rapidly growing T-commerce industry, such technological development efforts are expected to continuously stimulate consumer interest. According to the Korea T-commerce Association, the market size is estimated to reach around 5.4 trillion won this year, up nearly fivefold from 997.7 billion won in 2016.

Professor Choi Jae-seop of the Department of Distribution Marketing at Namseoul University said, "With platforms like Naver dominating the domestic shopping category, home shopping companies have no choice but to consider differentiation points. Personalized services and MCN services both show a unified direction in terms of strategies to capture individual customers." Professor Kim In-jung of Handong University pointed out, "The biggest current issue for T-commerce is the narrow viewer demographic, centered on women in their 50s. For the future, it is necessary to secure younger users." He especially emphasized the need for service linkage efforts such as integration with mobile commerce and utilization of YouTube.