Small Business Owners' 'Labang', Gather at Sodam Square

Added 1 More This Year in 8 Locations Nationwide
Free Use for All Small Business Owners

#. ‘Yukgam Chuksan’ is a meat restaurant that has recently become popular through so-called ‘Labang’ (live commerce). Innovative items such as camping meat sets are gaining popularity. The reason for starting live commerce was COVID-19. Sales at the offline store they operated plummeted. They visited ‘Sodam Square’, where after taking the ‘Live Commerce Broadcaster Training’ course, they borrowed the studio and equipment needed to conduct broadcasts for free. They saved about 7 million KRW in initial investment costs. Since then, they have conducted live commerce broadcasts twice a week, communicating directly with viewers and expanding sales channels, enabling rapid growth.

Marking its 5th year this year, Sodam Square is creating success stories of small business owners overcoming crises and achieving digital transformation. Sodam Square, meaning ‘a space that contains the stories of small business owners,’ provides free live commerce studios, product photography studios, training rooms, and shared offices for small business owners. As achievements accumulated, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups decided to expand this project this year.

On the 20th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Small Enterprise and Market Service announced that they are recruiting new executing agencies for Sodam Square, a digital commerce specialized institution that comprehensively supports small business owners from marketing content practice and production based on digital specialized infrastructure to entry into e-commerce channels.

Sodam Square Yeoksam

Sodam Square currently operates eight locations in total: Yeoksam, Sangam, and Dangsan in Seoul, as well as Busan, Daegu, Jeonju, Chuncheon, and Gwangju. This year, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to hold a public contest targeting regions without existing facilities to establish one new location and expand support for small business owners’ digital online transition. The support budget has also increased from 5.6 billion KRW last year to 6.8 billion KRW this year.

New executing agencies will receive up to 1 billion KRW to build digital online infrastructure and operating programs, supporting the entire process of small business owners entering the online market. To apply, they must have live commerce studios, training rooms, and shared offices. Through this, they are expected to support about 500 small businesses and over 1,000 products annually.

Oh Gi-woong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “For small business owners, securing online sales capabilities such as live commerce has become an essential factor to expand beyond regional boundaries and enter domestic and overseas markets.” He added, “We expect active activities from small business owners in regions without free benefits who will newly establish Sodam Square this year.” Vice Minister Oh also stated, “We will continue to expand the necessary policy resources to strengthen small business owners’ online market entry capabilities.”

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