Q1 Revenue 28.1 Billion KRW... 15% Increase YoY
Operating Loss Significantly Reduced to 1.4 Billion KRW
Pet Friends, a pet shopping mall, announced on the 8th that its sales in the first quarter of this year reached 28.1 billion KRW, a 15.6% increase compared to the same period last year. Pet Friends' sales in the first quarter of this year are the highest ever on a quarterly basis. The operating loss ratio also decreased to 5%, marking the first time since Pet Friends' founding that the operating loss ratio fell to a single digit.
Pet Friends' operating loss in the first quarter of this year was 1.4 billion KRW, showing improvement compared to 3.8 billion KRW last year. The operating loss ratio improved by 10.7 percentage points, decreasing from 15.7% last year to 5.0% this year. During the same period, transaction volume grew by 12.6% to 33.5 billion KRW.
Pet Friends reduced costs, which previously accounted for about 9-10% of sales, to 5-6% through marketing cost efficiency based on pet big data. Additionally, by reflecting the needs of Pet Friends customers and expanding the proportion of private brand (PB) products with excellent price competitiveness, profitability has been improved.
The company is also investing in future growth engines such as technology and new business ventures. Recently, Pet Friends signed a business agreement with Impact AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based big data analysis solution company, to analyze pets' preferences and health. According to Pet Friends, this laid the technological foundation for expanding services beyond commerce. The community service launched last year also functions as a platform for communication of pet-related information, increasing customer app dwell time and driving sales growth.
Pet Friends plans to continuously seek additional growth through diversification of revenue models. It is focusing investments on building new businesses in vertical sectors such as pet healthcare, pet sitters, and grooming hotels. Through this, it aims to become the largest pet lifestyle app in Korea.
Yoon Hyun-shin, CEO of Pet Friends, said, "In the fiercely competitive environment of domestic and international e-commerce companies, the role of Pet Friends, a pet commerce category killer operated based on pet big data, is becoming increasingly important. Based on rapid growth, we will achieve the operating profit break-even point (BEP) and establish our status as an industry leader."
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