Like a Newspaper... "We Also Subscribe Monthly to Coffee and Food"

Droptop's capsule coffee.

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] #Mr. Han, a 30-something office worker, recently subscribed to a membership discount service on a food delivery application. It was a choice tailored to his consumption pattern, which increased food delivery frequency during the two years of remote work in the COVID-19 era. After recently acquiring an espresso machine, he plans to subscribe regularly to capsule coffee as his consumption of capsule coffee has increased.

The subscription market, where consumers pay a monthly fee like a newspaper subscription to regularly use necessary food, coffee, daily necessities, hotel services, and more, is rapidly expanding. According to KT Economic Management Research Institute on the 29th, the domestic subscription market grew 55% from 25.9 trillion won in 2016 to 40.1 trillion won last year.

According to a recent survey by a job portal site, 7 out of 10 adults are using online subscription services, and 18.5% responded that they subscribe to food and food ingredients.

For example, Lotte Confectionery is offering a subscription service in collaboration with the online sports platform ‘SpoTV Now’ through its snack subscription service ‘Monthly Snacks.’ For the first 1,000 new subscribers, a premium pass for SpoTV Now is provided, and the contents of Monthly Snacks are composed of recently released products paired with snacks suitable for watching sports videos.

Lotte GRS’s Angel-in-us offers an ‘Americano Subscription Ticket’ that allows purchasing 10 Americanos at about 30% discount, and a ‘Banh Mi Set Subscription Ticket’ that offers a total of 4 sets of a Banh Mi sandwich and an Americano at about 28% discount.

Droptop partnered with Kakao and launched a coffee MD subscription service last month. Through Kakao’s subscription service ‘Subscription ON,’ customers can use ‘925 Capsule Coffee 2 types’ at a 12% discounted price of 31,000 won per month. The subscription includes 5 packs of 10 capsules each of 925 Capsule Coffee Black Blend (dark chocolate, caramel) and Red Blend (wine, citrus), and one MD product is given as a ‘bonus’ when subscribing.

Startup Spring Onward has launched ‘Wondo Daily,’ a coffee bean subscription and coffee machine rental service, handling 200 types of coffee beans while increasing its recognition. The number of corporate clients subscribing to Spring Onward’s specialty coffee service more than doubled from about 200 at the end of last year to about 500 at the end of September. It is known that the conversion rate from service trial to actual contract reaches 99%. During the same period, the curation order volume, which allows customers to experience different beans weekly, increased threefold.

Hotel Shilla, which recently launched the meal kit product ‘Shilla Dining at Home,’ has made it possible to purchase the Bespoke Cooker at a discounted price along with the meal kit when subscribing to Samsung Card’s easy meal subscription contract service ‘My Cooker Plan.’ My Cooker Plan is a service that offers discounts when purchasing a certain amount or more monthly with a Samsung Card at designated food direct malls during the contract period.

An industry official said, “With the activation of non-face-to-face services due to COVID-19, subscription services are rapidly settling in the distribution industry,” adding, “Especially among the MZ generation, the subscription economy market, where consumers pay a monthly subscription fee and regularly receive desired products or services, is growing further.”

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