Big Data and B2B Platforms... KOTRA Strengthens Online Export Support

[Asia Economy Reporter Su-yeon Woo] KOTRA is strengthening online export support by introducing various platforms suitable for the post-COVID-19 era and holding corporate customer meetings.

KOTRA announced on the 27th that it held a big data and BuyKorea customer meeting for the 2020 Digital Transformation Innovation Project on the 25th at Samsung-dong, Seoul. This meeting was organized to hear the voices from the field of corporate customers, who are the demand side of export support, and discussed ways to promote innovative projects such as the use of big data and digital trade suitable for the post-COVID-19 era with 10 customer companies and experts.

Additionally, since March this year, KOTRA has been developing and releasing a 'Big Data Platform' to strengthen data-based exports of Korean companies. The online business-to-business (B2B) platform 'BuyKorea' is also undergoing functional improvements to enhance convenience and usability from the user’s perspective.

The first phase of the big data platform introduced by KOTRA currently provides services such as promising market recommendations, artificial intelligence (AI) reports, and related company recommendations. Through the second phase, which will continue until April next year, KOTRA plans to improve the reliability of information and services. It will collect industry, market, and economic information using internal and external sources and newly introduce a chatbot.

KOTRA held a Big Data and BuyKorea Customer Meeting for the 2020 Digital Transformation Innovation Project on the 25th in Samseong-dong, Seoul. Kwon Pyung-oh, President of KOTRA (fifth from the left in the front row), and other attendees are taking a commemorative photo.

In particular, KOTRA plans to expand sources of overseas company and market information to provide customers with broader and more accurate information. The promising overseas market recommendation model, which many companies currently use, will also be improved. Various statistics and market information will be presented together to support Korean companies in pioneering new markets. A business recommendation model that analyzes company data to recommend the most suitable KOTRA services will also be added.

Since March, KOTRA has been creating an online exhibition hall on the B2B platform 'BuyKorea' to discover inquiries and is also implementing video consultation services. KOTRA is undertaking a revamp of 'BuyKorea,' where demand has surged, with visitor inflow tripling compared to last year.

To increase the influx of overseas buyers, the user interface was improved and released on the 14th. By the end of this year, KOTRA plans to significantly expand online promotions for BuyKorea. Beyond the existing search engine-focused advertisements, it will concentrate on social media in 10 major countries. An online sales promotion event will also be organized for 300 companies with well-detailed product information.

KOTRA’s digital export support using big data and BuyKorea is gradually gaining momentum. In online consultations nearing 20,000 cases, 285 contracts worth about 61 million USD have been generated. Currently, the BuyKorea online exhibition hall has 5,588 companies and over 16,000 products registered.

Kwon Pyung-oh, President of KOTRA, stated, "Online, data, and digital have rapidly become the new normal after COVID-19," and added, "Based on the voices from the field gathered at this meeting, we will continue to promote digital innovation and lead the changes in the global trade environment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.