Economist: "Standards of Beauty Rapidly Changing Through SNS"
"Cosmetic Procedures and Surgeries Becoming Common Among Public... Increased Interest Among Youth"
Globally, the number of young people undergoing various cosmetic procedures and surgeries, such as filler injections, to keep up with rapidly changing beauty standards through social networking services (SNS) is increasing. This trend is influenced by heightened interest in their own appearance on screen during the pandemic and the decreasing costs of procedures due to technological advancements.
The British current affairs weekly The Economist recently reported that a cosmetic surgery boom is occurring mainly among young people in developing countries. Cosmetic procedures and surgeries, once primarily performed by celebrities in the 1980s and 1990s, have now become widespread among the general public. The media noted that this phenomenon is happening worldwide, from Asia including Korea and China, to Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon and Iran, Latin America’s Brazil, and North America’s United States.
In fact, in the United States, four out of five specialists performing facial cosmetic procedures and surgeries in 2021 reported an increase in patients requesting treatments aimed at improving their appearance during telemedicine consultations. Among Europeans concerned about hair loss, it has become a trend to travel to T?rkiye, where hair transplant costs are relatively low, to receive treatment. The number of visitors to T?rkiye for cosmetic medical purposes increased fivefold from 300,000 in 2013 to 1.5 million last year.
This trend is also confirmed by data. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) data cited by The Economist, the number of cosmetic medical procedures worldwide, including non-invasive treatments such as filler injections, surged from 25 million in 2019 to 35 million in 2023.
The Economist assessed that since ISAPS data only includes procedures performed by board-certified plastic surgeons, the actual number of procedures and surgeries is likely higher. For example, in Iran, where rhinoplasty is common, there are about 400 board-certified plastic surgeons, but approximately 2,000 doctors perform cosmetic procedures, five times more. Similarly, in countries like China and the UK, the number of medical professionals performing cosmetic procedures far exceeds the number of registered plastic surgeons.
Marcelo Araujo, a plastic surgeon in Brazil, predicted that receiving injections or laser treatments for cosmetic purposes could increase to a level comparable to annual health checkups. He added, "In the past, it took quite a long time to spread new beauty standards through advertisements or magazines, but with the spread of SNS, new beauty standards now quickly disseminate worldwide."
The Economist explained, "Reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who defined Western beauty standards with her curvy figure a decade ago, greatly contributed to the popularization of cosmetic surgery," and noted that "buttock augmentation and lifting surgeries have seen the largest increase globally from 2015 to 2023."
As SNS’s influence in setting beauty standards grows, interest in cosmetic procedures among teenagers and people in their twenties, who have high SNS usage rates, is also increasing. In the United States, 27% of patients who received Botox treatments in 2022 were aged 34 or younger, showing a steady rise from 20% in 2015. Chinese cosmetic procedure platform SoYoung revealed that two-thirds of its 20 million customers in 2018 were young people born after the 1990s. The Economist cited Gallup data showing that in Korea, women in their twenties accounted for 25% of cosmetic surgery patients in 2020, a significant increase from 5% in 1994.
Tiffany Demers, founder of Upkeep, a cosmetic injection booking application based in Silicon Valley, USA, shared that "teenagers view these cosmetic surgeries and procedures as casually as buying lipstick or cosmetics."
Given this situation, the cosmetic medical industry is expected to expand globally. The American market research firm Grand View Research forecasted that the cosmetic medical industry will grow to $143 billion (approximately 210.2 trillion KRW), doubling in size over the next five years. The Economist also reported that private equity investment in cosmetic medicine in the United States grew at an average annual rate of 30% from 2019 to 2021.
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