Inside eBay Korea, Emart Strengthens the 'Big 3' E-commerce System

The headquarters of eBay Korea in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 17th, where Shinsegae Group is reported to acquire eBay Korea. / Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] The Fair Trade Commission approved Shinsegae Group Emart's acquisition of an 80% stake in eBay Korea on the 29th, confirming Emart's acquisition of eBay Korea. The acquisition process is expected to be completed within the year after the payment is finalized.

Emart stated on the day, "We will promptly proceed with follow-up procedures such as payment and complete the acquisition process as soon as possible."

Once the acquisition process is completed, Shinsegae Group's domestic online shopping market share will reach about 15%, combining SSG.com’s 3% and eBay Korea’s 12%. In the fiercely competitive e-commerce market, this will solidify a 'big three' system alongside Naver Shopping (17%) and Coupang (13%).

Within Shinsegae Group, eBay Korea will become the company with the largest transaction volume (17.2 trillion KRW) as a single entity. As the online portion of Emart's business grows to 50%, the business focus will shift from offline to online.

eBay Korea is expected to continue operating separate platforms such as Gmarket, Auction, and G9 for the time being. While the sites will be operated independently, collaboration with group affiliates will be expanded to create synergy. Emart plans to retain eBay Korea’s workforce as is.

The company believes that considering SSG.com’s competitiveness in fresh food and eBay Korea’s strength in non-food sectors, they can play complementary roles. They will also be able to utilize eBay Korea’s accumulated customer and seller data, merchandise planners (MDs), and IT development personnel built up over 20 years.

Meanwhile, Emart disclosed in a corrected announcement on the day that "eBay headquarters established a new corporation, Apollo Korea, for the purpose of transferring eBay Korea shares." The future stock purchase agreement for eBay Korea will be conducted by acquiring shares of Apollo Korea LLC. Emart said, "this is a process requested for convenience in local administrative procedures in the U.S., and the process is proceeding smoothly and will be completed as soon as possible."

The Fair Trade Commission stated on the day, "We approved the merger as we judged that Emart’s acquisition of eBay Korea shares poses little concern regarding competition restrictions in the relevant market." Emart signed a contract to acquire 80.01% of eBay Korea shares from eBay headquarters in the U.S. for 3.4404 trillion KRW and reported the merger to the Fair Trade Commission in July. After reviewing the horizontal merger in the online shopping market, the Fair Trade Commission judged that the risk of competition restriction is low.

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