"Transaction Amount 250 Billion KRW" Naver 'Shopping Live' Reasons Behind Its Rapid Growth

1st Anniversary of Service Launch
Cumulative Views Reach 350 Million
Lowering Entry Barriers for Small Businesses and Differentiating with Proprietary Content

Naver's live commerce service 'Shopping Live,' approaching its first anniversary, has become a key driver of its shopping business. As online shopping grows due to the spread of non-face-to-face culture, live commerce, which allows real-time shopping broadcasts on mobile devices, has become the trend, and Naver's Shopping Live is also growing rapidly.

Naver 'Shopping Live' Storms Ahead

According to Naver on the 16th, Shopping Live, launched on July 30 last year, surpassed 350 million cumulative views and 250 billion KRW in cumulative transaction volume within 11 months by the end of June this year. Compared to August last year, right after the service launch, the total number of sellers increased by 620%, and the monthly transaction volume increased by more than 1300%. A Naver official said, "Shopping Live has established itself as a new shopping channel for both sellers and users."

This growth of Shopping Live was achieved by lowering market entry barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and investing in live technology. Naver integrated video live technology into Smart Store, creating an environment where anyone can participate in live commerce with just a smartphone. They focused on stable, high-quality live systems with 'ultra-low latency playback technology' and invested in technology necessary to support sales. As a result, SME sellers increased by 855%, and transaction volume rose by 3250%. Notably, the SME transaction volume accounted for about 55% of the total as of June. Naver also built an education and support ecosystem to make Shopping Live accessible to everyone. To strengthen SMEs' live capabilities, they opened a dedicated studio for Shopping Live and launched an education hub page to develop and operate customized educational content.

As competition among platform companies in live commerce intensifies, Naver is focusing on differentiation strategies such as developing shopping-specialized live technology and strengthening content competitiveness. They plan to diversify content tailored to categories, such as 'Kim Haena's Close-up Beauty' and 'Seo Kyunghwan's 99 Special Price Show,' and connect creators with expertise like Live Star to brand companies through 'Brand Connect.' Song Jaehun, Naver Shopping Live's lead manager, stated, "In the second half of the year, we will pioneer various products, services, and content areas where technology and platform can create synergy, and create new value as a platform that embraces new creator groups like 'Live Star.'"

'10 Trillion KRW Market in 2 Years' Live Commerce Market

Live commerce has become a trend in the distribution industry as non-face-to-face culture spread due to COVID-19. IT companies like Naver and Kakao started services early and are competing to capture the market. Kakao also offers a live commerce service called 'Kakao Shopping Live,' enhancing accessibility by adding a 'Shopping' tab in KakaoTalk. When entering shopping in KakaoTalk, 'Shopping Live' is immediately displayed at the top right. Kakao's Shopping Live is also performing well, surpassing 70 million cumulative views. The average viewership per broadcast reaches 140,000.

The reason IT companies are entering the live commerce business is the market's growth potential. According to Kyobo Securities, the domestic live commerce market size is expected to grow from 400 billion KRW last year to 10 trillion KRW by 2023. Especially, IT companies have traffic, video production and broadcasting infrastructure, and payment services, making it easier to dominate the market. Kim Hankyung, a researcher at Kyobo Securities, said, "Middle-aged and older generations accustomed to purchasing through home shopping have newly entered the online shopping market due to COVID-19, and younger generations tend to shop through videos," adding, "Even after the end of COVID-19, demand for live commerce will continue to grow rapidly."

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