Hyundai Department Store Partners with Naver to Launch 'Online Culture Center'

The First Online Culture Center in the Retail Industry
'Hyundai Department Store Culture Class' Launch
Over 80 Courses Including Pilates and Flower Arrangement

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Hyundai Department Store, which was the first in the domestic distribution industry to open an offline cultural center, is now launching the industry's first 'online cultural center.' They will operate both offline and online cultural centers in a two-track system.

On the 7th, Hyundai Department Store announced that it will launch the 'Hyundai Department Store Culture Class,' an online cultural center lecture that can be attended on Naver's lecture platform 'Expert.'

Expert is a platform where users can listen to experts' online lectures in real time, and this is the first time in the domestic distribution industry that an online cultural center offering regular courses is being introduced.

Hyundai Department Store began operating the 'Hyundai Department Store Cultural Center' in 1985, simultaneously with the opening of its Apgujeong Main Store, becoming the first in the domestic distribution industry to do so. Currently, more than 30,000 lectures are held annually across over 120 classrooms in 16 stores nationwide, including the Apgujeong Main Store and Trade Center Store. The annual number of students reaches 500,000.

The newly launched Hyundai Department Store Culture Class offers about 80 courses taught by 14 instructors from the Hyundai Department Store Cultural Center, including Pilates, photography, flower arrangement, and leather crafts. Representative courses include 'Analyzing My Travel Photos' by travel photographer Baek Sang-hyun, 'Core Strengthening Exercises' by Pilates instructor Hwang Hyun-jin with 10 years of experience, and 'Making Christmas Wreaths at Home' by florist Kim Jun-su.

Online cultural center lectures are conducted through one-on-one chat or voice/video calls between instructors and applicants. Unlike existing offline cultural center lectures that must be attended at a set date and time, online classes can be taken anytime and anywhere as long as the instructor is available. Students can also choose to attend individual sessions from offline courses, which typically run 4 to 8 times per semester for 30 minutes to an hour each. If students have questions about the lectures before enrolling, they can inquire directly with the instructor through the one-on-one question feature on the instructor's page.

The tuition fee ranges from 30,000 to 50,000 KRW per lecture, and materials for flower arrangement or leather crafts must be purchased separately via links on the registration page. A coupon worth 20,000 to 30,000 KRW, which provides a discount on tuition fees, will be offered once until the end of February next year.

Hyundai Department Store plans to increase the number of courses offered through the online cultural center to about 500 by next year. To achieve this, they will expand the number of instructors for Hyundai Department Store Culture Class to around 100 and broaden the lecture fields to include arts, wine, interior design, golf, and more. Similar to the existing offline cultural center, they will offer lectures for multiple students and provide VOD lecture services that allow viewing video lectures without one-on-one instruction.

Yang Myung-sung, Executive Director of Sales Strategy at Hyundai Department Store, said, "Starting with this collaboration with Naver, we plan to expand the presence of Hyundai Department Store Cultural Center not only offline but also in the online lecture market." He added, "Through this, along with social contribution and mecenat activities carried out through existing 'Hyundai Children's Book Museum' and 'H Gallery,' we will contribute to the expansion of cultural foundations in the region."

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