Stock Price Up 60% This Year... Market Cap Recovers to 1.3 Trillion KRW
YouTube Shopping to Become the 'New Normal'
Google Invests 7.24% Stake in Cafe24
As the live commerce market rapidly grows, expectations are rising that Cafe24 will benefit. This year, Cafe24's corporate value has also been growing quickly.
According to the financial investment industry on the 5th, Cafe24's stock price has risen 59.9% since the beginning of this year. Considering that the KOSDAQ index rose 6.2% during the same period, the market-beating return is 53.7 percentage points (P). Foreign investors led the stock price increase by net buying 83 billion KRW. Cafe24's market capitalization has expanded to 1.315 trillion KRW. The stock price reached an intraday high of 55,900 KRW the previous day, setting a new 52-week high.
In June last year, Cafe24, together with YouTube, launched the world's first "YouTube Shopping Exclusive Store" service. It directly connected YouTube video content with online shopping. The YouTube Shopping Exclusive Store is a feature that allows opening a dedicated store for YouTube Shopping. Creators and brand sellers without their own malls can also start YouTube Shopping. Cafe24 implemented functions such as store opening, product registration, and channel linking in collaboration with YouTube. Google International LLC holds a 7.24% stake in Cafe24.
Shopping using YouTube live commerce is gradually becoming more active. Since YouTube is a platform where people in their teens and twenties spend a long time, it has great growth potential in live commerce. Mirae Asset Securities estimated that the domestic live commerce market size will grow 50% year-on-year to reach 6.6 trillion KRW this year. The domestic live commerce market shows a pattern where latecomers are chasing the leading platform, Naver.
YouTube Shopping is expected to start growing significantly from this year and reach a 28% domestic market share by 2028. As the total transaction amount (GMV) of YouTube Shopping increases, Cafe24's sales will also increase accordingly.
In addition to securing future growth potential, the improved profitability through cost efficiency efforts last year is also considered a positive factor. In the third quarter of last year, Cafe24 recorded sales of 76.5 billion KRW and an operating profit of 6.7 billion KRW. Sales increased by 18% compared to the same period last year, and operating profit turned positive. The results exceeded the market expectation of 4.5 billion KRW in operating profit.
A financial investment industry official explained, "As the number of successful YouTubers through YouTube Shopping increases, the number of sellers is likely to increase," adding, "The total sales amount of YouTube Shopping can grow rapidly."
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