YouTube to launch its first official shopping channel in South Korea -Yonhap (updated)
21/06/2023 05:04
(Adds YouTube comment, paragraph 5)
SEOUL, June 21 (Reuters) - YouTube will launch its first
official shopping channel for live commerce in South Korea on
June 30, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
South Korea already has a booming live-streaming commerce
business led by tech giant Naver 035420.KS , making it a prime
test market for the global heavyweight as the Alphabet-owned
GOOGL.O company focuses on becoming more "shoppable".
The new channel will operate in Korean language and will
start as a 90-day project. In the beginning it will provide a
live-commerce platform to companies and plans to livestream
shopping content from about 30 brands, Yonhap and other Korean
media said, citing people familiar with the matter.
It is YouTube's first official shopping channel in any
country, Yonhap said.
"We may experiment with a variety of YouTube Shopping
features from time to time," a YouTube spokesperson said,
without elaborating.
With YouTube's ad revenue affected by advertisers curtailing
spending and competition from platforms like TikTok, Google's
Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said in February there
was "lots of potential in making it easier for people to shop
from the creators, brands and content they love".
Shares in Naver fell 4% on Wednesday morning, while retailer
Lotte Shopping 023530.KS fell 3.3%, versus the wider market's
.KS11 0.5% drop.
South Korea's live commerce market is projected to grow to
10 trillion won ($7.7 billion) this year from 2.8 trillion won
in 2021, with Naver currently holding about 60% market share,
according to Kyobo Securities.
($1 = 1,291.1600 won)
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates and Lincoln
Feast)
((joyce.lee@tr.com;))