Live Streaming Craze... Coupang Also Turns Camera ON

Coupang Enters Live Commerce... App Launch and Creator Recruitment

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Coupang will officially enter the live commerce market in January this year. Preparations are underway, including the recent launch of an application (app) for this purpose. Woowa Brothers, the service provider of Baedal Minjok (Baemin), is also forming a live commerce-related organization and preparing new business ventures. The top players in e-commerce and delivery platforms are consecutively entering the live commerce market. Intense competition is expected with portal companies and distribution companies that have already entered the market.

According to industry sources on the 12th, Coupang recently released the ‘Coupang Live Creator’ app on the Google Play Store and launched a webpage to guide the service. They are recruiting creators and vendors to participate in live commerce, and the service is expected to be unveiled within this month. ‘Coupang Live’ is a live commerce platform within Coupang that allows customers to explain and sell products using real-time streaming services. What sets it apart from existing live commerce is that anyone can become a creator introducing various Coupang products. Vendors can either operate live broadcasts themselves or request creators to host the broadcasts. Creators earn revenue based on sales performance, and vendors can expand product sales through live commerce.

Considering that Coupang is the most widely used shopping app in Korea, its influence on the live commerce market is expected to be significant. According to app analysis service WiseApp, Coupang was used by 17.91 million people in November, more than 10 million users higher than 11st, which ranked second with 7.16 million users.

Baemin also established a live commerce organization around October last year and has been hiring related personnel. The service launch date has not yet been decided. Industry insiders expect Baemin to tap into the live commerce market based on its user base of over 10 million monthly users who use Baemin for food delivery, focusing on food-related product categories, its main area of expertise.

The reason why Coupang, Baemin, and others are entering live commerce one after another is because the growth potential of this market is considerable. According to Ebest Investment & Securities, the domestic live commerce market size was estimated to be in the 3 trillion KRW range last year and is expected to expand to the 8 trillion KRW range by 2023. An industry official predicted, "While large distribution companies and portal companies are actively moving to secure a foothold in the live commerce market, platform companies with user bases exceeding 10 million will also enter this market, leading to fierce competition this year."