K-Commerce Shaken by Temu Air Raid... Some Korean Companies Also Benefit

Increase in NHN KCP Transaction Volume Due to China's E-commerce Growth
Chinese Direct Purchase Established as a New Consumer Trend
NHN KCP, Google Merchant Launch Status Also a Key Point to Watch

The number of users in South Korea utilizing Chinese e-commerce (C-commerce) platforms such as AliExpress and Temu is rapidly increasing. The Yeouido securities market expects the trend of growing C-commerce users to continue for the time being, considering factors like rising prices and changes in consumer habits. NHN KCP, which handles Temu's payment services, is acting as a catalyst for the stock price increase.

According to the financial investment industry on the 15th, NHN KCP's stock price rose 62.4% over four months starting from November last year. During the same period, the KOSDAQ index only increased by 16.7%. Domestic institutional investors led the stock price rise by accumulating net purchases of 2.43 million shares.

NHN KCP recorded sales of 972 billion KRW and operating profit of 42 billion KRW on a consolidated basis last year. Compared to the previous year, sales increased by 18.1%, but operating profit decreased by 5.1%. The total annual transaction amount reached 43 trillion KRW, up 17.1% year-on-year. Overseas merchant transaction volume was 5.5 trillion KRW, accounting for 12.8% of the total transaction amount. While existing merchants steadily grew, transaction volume increased by securing new clients such as dawn delivery services, global online video services (OTT), and Chinese direct purchase companies.

A company representative said, "The C-commerce platform is rapidly growing by addressing previously pointed out drawbacks such as slow delivery and quality issues," adding, "Transaction amounts are continuously increasing." They further stated, "We have secured competitiveness through fast integration with Apple Pay, development of our own simple payment platform, excellent security, and quick settlement services stemming from a solid financial structure."

The potential for additional transaction volume growth due to C-commerce expansion is positively impacting NHN KCP's stock price. According to Marketing Cloud operated by big data platform company IGAWorks, Temu recorded approximately 2.22 million new app downloads last month. Among domestic shopping apps, Temu achieved the highest number of monthly new installations for five consecutive months starting from September last year. Last month's monthly active users (MAU) reached about 4.59 million, growing more than tenfold compared to 340,000 in August last year.

Yoon Yudong, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, analyzed, "Chinese direct purchase is becoming a new consumption trend rather than a simple theme," noting, "As of the 13th, the Google Play app rankings were AliExpress at 1st place and Temu at 2nd." He added, "NHN KCP plans to expand more merchants based on its global sales capabilities," and "In the fourth quarter of last year, it secured two major travel agencies."

Kim Jingu, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, explained, "Diversification of companies is a positive factor from the perspective of strengthening NHN KCP's bargaining power," and "The most important variable this year is the meaningful incremental transaction volume depending on whether Google opens its merchant platform." He emphasized, "Bringing in competitors' volume will create net transaction volume growth," and "Google's entry, which holds an absolute share of the domestic app market, will act as a factor in expanding NHN KCP's corporate value."

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