[AI Revolution](54) Why Abley Became the No.1 in Usage Time for Food, Clothing, and Shelter Platforms

Ending the First Half with a Profit for the First Time in 5 Years
Increasing Usage Time through Proprietary AI Recommendation Service
A Virtuous Cycle Naturally Boosting Sales

Fashion commerce platform 'Abley,' which opened its doors in 2018, succeeded in turning a profit after five years. After recording its first monthly profit since its founding in March, it continued a four-month streak of profitability. Ultimately, it closed the first half of the year in the black. Sales in the first half increased by 60% compared to the same period last year, and transaction volume grew by 40%. Abley, which recorded sales of 178.5 billion KRW and an operating loss of 74.4 billion KRW last year, is now looking forward to an annual profit.

Abley is a company on the verge of becoming a unicorn (a company valued at over 1 trillion KRW). It operates a mobile platform under the same name. Currently, its corporate value is estimated at about 900 billion KRW. The accumulated investment amount is 223 billion KRW. Its MAU (Monthly Active Users) is 7 million, ranking first in the industry.

Among platforms related to clothing, food, and housing, Abley also has the highest usage time. According to statistics released by Forbes Korea last year, the daily usage time is 12.35 minutes. This is not only much higher than its competitor Musinsa (8.9 minutes) but also exceeds Baedal Minjok (9.11 minutes) and Today’s House (12.27 minutes), which are leading platforms in the 'food' and 'housing' categories. The longer users stay, the more natural it is for sales to increase, creating a virtuous cycle.

Taste Targeting Rivaling YouTube

Several factors contributed to the turnaround in performance, but the recommendation algorithm rivaling YouTube has a significant impact. When watching YouTube, people often find themselves drawn into recommended videos without realizing it. Abley’s self-developed 'AI (Artificial Intelligence) personalized recommendation technology' works on a similar principle. For example, if a customer frequently searches for floral dresses, the recommendations do not stop at dresses or floral patterns but also include other fashion items like jackets and bags. It utilizes data from other people with similar tastes.

Abley offers not only fashion but also beauty and lifestyle categories. Abley’s AI recommendation technology applies to products beyond fashion, a so-called 'cross recommendation.' This is based on accumulated 'big data.' It holds various customer experience data, including purchase histories and search data from diverse age groups, about 1.2 billion 'wishlist' data (product preference data), and 50 million reviews. Through 'machine learning,' the AI continuously refines its recommendation technology on its own.

Style Commerce, Now Going Global

Abley is the number one 'vertical commerce' platform (based on MAU) beyond the fashion industry. Vertical commerce refers to specialized malls focusing on specific categories such as fashion, luxury goods, food, and interior design. Considering that it was a latecomer compared to competitors Musinsa (founded in 2001) and Zigzag (founded in 2012), it has grown at a rapid pace.

At the heart of the AI technology is CTO (Chief Technology Officer) Choi Ha-neul. A graduate of Pohang University of Science and Technology, he has a third-place award at the world’s largest hacking competition, DEFCON 3. Choi, who also co-founded the OTT (Over-The-Top) video service Watcha, joined Abley in 2019. At that time, Abley was using an AI recommendation service based on Amazon Web Services (AWS), as were its competitors. The service only showed products similar to what customers searched for. Given the industry’s nature, it was judged necessary to have an AI recommendation service that 'precisely targets' individual tastes. CEO Kang Seok-hoon agreed with CTO Choi’s vision. They recruited machine learning experts and, after six months of development and pilot implementation, were able to replace AWS.

Based on its unique recommendation technology, Abley aims to be a 'style commerce' platform. A portmanteau of style and commerce, it refers to commerce that covers areas imbued with style such as fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Abley coined the term, which other companies have recently started using as well. CEO Kang Seok-hoon said, “As we move into the second half, the peak season for the fashion industry, we are confident that our growth momentum will accelerate further,” adding, “We will create unprecedented achievements in the global market and advance as a global style commerce platform leading innovation.”