An Jung-eun, CEO of 11st, "Open Market Achieves Monthly Break-even Point... Starting to Turn Profitable"

"Strengthening Competitiveness Based on Open Market Revenue Structure
Achieving Profitability by 2025"

"Through consistent efforts to improve profitability, the open market business has surpassed the break-even point (BEP). The foundation has been laid for turning profitable in the '11st 2.0' era."

On the 7th, Ahn Jeong-eun, CEO of 11st, stated at a town hall meeting held for employees at Seoul Square in Jung-gu, Seoul, "the monthly operating results for last month showed that the open market business has surpassed the break-even point," he said. Since February, operating results have begun to improve, and in June, there was an improvement of more than 7 billion KRW compared to the same period last year, surpassing the break-even point. In the first half of this year (January to June), operating profit and loss improved by more than 29 billion KRW compared to the same period last year.

Ahn Jung-eun, CEO of 11st, is speaking at a town hall meeting for employees held on the 7th at Seoul Square in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by 11st].

CEO Ahn emphasized, "The greatest achievement is that we set the goal of '11st 2.0' and succeeded in creating a business structure capable of realizing profits in a short time," adding, "Going forward, we will focus on strengthening competitiveness based on profitability and turn around to become a profitable company by 2025."

11st's business structure is divided into open market and direct purchase. The open market business intermediates products from sellers on 11st and accounts for the majority of 11st's transaction volume.

Since achieving a profit of 1.4 billion KRW in 2019, 11st has continued to incur operating losses. This is explained as a result of investments in new businesses such as direct purchase for 'fast delivery' and efforts to acquire customers for growth. However, leveraging the profitability achievement of the open market business in June, 11st plans to achieve 'healthy growth' in the direct purchase business and turn the entire 11st business profitable by 2025.

CEO Ahn said that based on data from the first half of this year, they pursued cost efficiency by changing the price discount structure and improved profitability through the development of new advertising products, which enabled the open market business to reach the break-even point. The increase in customers visiting 11st also contributed significantly to the performance improvement. According to Nielsen Korean Click, the monthly active users (MAU) of 11st's mobile application in June reached 13.97 million, an increase of 1.01 million compared to January.

The consecutive launch of vertical services in new areas preferred by customers, such as fresh food (February), luxury goods (March), and refurbished products (April), was also evaluated positively. Consistent execution of large-scale promotions such as the monthly Sipiljeol and Super Hero Festa was also analyzed to have had an impact.

CEO Ahn stated, "Based on the stable profit structure established through efforts to improve profitability in the first half of this year, we plan to significantly expand customer visits to 11st in the second half and pursue external growth as well."

Meanwhile, 11st's direct purchase business, centered on the next-day delivery service 'Shooting Delivery' launched in June last year, is recently focusing on expanding customers through full-scale marketing promotions. 11st said, "Currently, it is a time when investment for growth is absolutely necessary," and added, "While expanding Shooting Delivery, we will maintain an operational policy centered on managing profitability."

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