[Start人] "Beyond Providing E-commerce Big Data, Launching Own Brand for Direct Sales"

Choi Kyung-jun, CEO of Moonriver

Choi Kyung-jun, CEO of Moonriver.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dong-hyun] "Having established ourselves as a data hub in the e-commerce market, we now plan to directly sell products to verify our data prediction capabilities."

Choi Kyung-jun, CEO of Moonriver and operator of the e-commerce data analysis platform ‘ItemScout’ (age 34), expects the company to enter a second phase of growth, spearheaded by a new business starting in the second half of this year. In addition to the existing business of providing big data, CEO Choi plans to launch an in-house brand and directly sell products from the second half of the year. He said, "We plan to first introduce a popular health functional food brand in the diet market."

CEO Choi’s ultimate goal is to challenge e-commerce industry financing as the next step after succeeding as a ‘seller’ in the e-commerce market. He explained, "If we succeed in selling products directly using the data we analyzed, we will secure verified market prediction capabilities," adding, "Based on this, we plan to expand the business through corporate investment, loans, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and other methods."

Before starting his business in Korea in 2017, CEO Choi spent several years working in overseas capital markets. He is a former global private equity analyst who graduated from Peking University’s Business School (Guanghua School of Management). He worked in Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other locations.

In 2017, when the blockchain investment boom was underway, CEO Choi returned to Korea and founded the cryptocurrency exchange ‘Genix’ and blockchain media service ‘Coinness,’ officially entering the startup scene. However, just before the business was on track, in October 2018, financial authorities imposed sanctions, forcing him to shut down the exchange business. CEO Choi recalled, "As the exchange showed signs of success, the financial authorities mentioned our company by name and filed a complaint for violating the Capital Markets Act," adding, "Bithumb and Upbit closed their doors last and entered the regulated market, while most latecomers, including our company, were unable to obtain bank real-name account linkage and mostly went out of business."

However, Coinness has successfully settled with over one million news subscribers. Coinness is a service that delivers blockchain-related news briefs 24 hours a day, similar to a news agency. CEO Choi said, "I remain only as a shareholder," and added, "Because we translate and provide issues and statements from famous figures occurring overseas in places like the U.S. and China, many coin investors visit our platform."

After experiencing setbacks in the domestic capital market, CEO Choi established Moonriver and launched ItemScout in 2020 as the e-commerce market rapidly grew due to the impact of COVID-19. ItemScout currently provides big data on which products are selling like hotcakes online and which products consumers are most interested in. It has become an essential platform for small business owners selling products on major domestic online markets such as Naver Shopping, Coupang, and 11st. As of the end of last month, ItemScout has 148,000 cumulative subscribers and 94,000 monthly active users (MAU), ranking first among e-commerce big data platforms.

To improve the quality of big data provided by ItemScout and enhance market prediction capabilities, CEO Choi recently recruited development personnel and financial analysts one after another. He plans to expand the scope of e-commerce data extraction to include areas such as secondhand platforms and increase data acquisition by forming strategic partnerships with other companies. CEO Choi stated, "The expansion of the e-commerce market due to COVID-19 seems to have become an irreversible trend," adding, "Within this, we plan to advance our data and introduce various businesses utilizing it."