[Exclusive] Coupang Goes 'All-In' on Live Broadcasts... Operating 11 Studios in Jamsil Starting Next Month

Coupang Launches 'Live Commerce Empire'... Builds 11 Studios on 13th Floor of Jamsil Headquarters
Pilot Operation in Beauty Category Since March... "Positive Evaluation of Market Potential"
Live Broadcasts Grow Over 7 Times This Year... 2023 Market Size Expected to Reach 10 Trillion Won
Currently About 500 Sellers... Considering Additional Recruitment of Influencers

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jun-hyung] Domestic e-commerce company Coupang is building multiple live commerce (live streaming) dedicated studios in Jamsil-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. Coupang is expected to embark on an 'territorial expansion' of its live commerce business upon the completion of the studios.

According to Asia Economy's coverage on the 7th, Coupang is remodeling the entire 13th floor of Tower 730 in Jamsil, where its headquarters is located, to operate 11 studios dedicated to live commerce. The scheduled completion date for the studios is the 28th of this month.

Coupang has occupied 19 floors from the 8th to the 26th floor of this building since 2017. Each floor has an area of 898.5㎡ (approximately 272 pyeong). Considering that its competitor Kakao Commerce operates only one live commerce studio of 150㎡ (about 45 pyeong), Coupang's studio count is about 11 times larger.

Live commerce is an online channel that sells products through real-time video streaming. During the broadcast, consumers can exchange product information or chat with the host or other buyers. As the fun of shopping increases and sales grow, e-commerce companies are competitively adopting live commerce.

Coupang has devised an expansion strategy for its live commerce business and started building studios. Since March, Coupang has been running a pilot live commerce service called 'Coupang Live' limited to the beauty category, confirming its potential for success. Although late compared to e-commerce competitors like Naver who entered the live commerce business early, Coupang aims to achieve clear results with its unique 'all-in' strategy. This is similar to Coupang's strategy in delivery services, where it quickly rose to third place in the industry behind Baedal Minjok and Yogiyo within two years of launching Coupang Eats.

The reason Coupang has increased investment in the live commerce sector is due to the explosive growth of the market. The domestic live commerce market is expected to become a 'mega commerce' sector accounting for a significant portion of online transaction volume, growing more than sevenfold compared to last year alone. Kyobo Securities forecasted that the domestic live commerce market will grow from 400 billion KRW last year to 2.8 trillion KRW this year, and to 10 trillion KRW in 2023, expanding about 25 times in three years.

Industry insiders view Coupang's construction of dedicated live commerce studios as a 'foreseen step.' An industry official said, "As a result of the pilot operation of Coupang Live, it is understood that Coupang internally gave positive evaluations regarding the marketability and growth potential of live commerce," adding, "Expanding categories is essentially a matter of time." Another industry insider said, "Although Coupang Live's growth is not yet at a threatening level, Coupang has the capital strength to rapidly emerge as a key player in live commerce."

Coupang is also expected to secure additional sellers to operate on its platform. Currently, Coupang Live has about 500 sellers, and Coupang is considering acquiring influencers with strong fan bases.

Meanwhile, the Chinese market, the 'originator of live commerce,' which started live commerce through influencers called Wanghong, expanded about 50 times from 3.3 trillion KRW in 2017 to 167.4 trillion KRW last year. According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and others, the share of live commerce in China's online transactions was 10.2% last year, increasing to 15.2% this year and 20.3% next year.