LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – YouTube is set to introduce its first official retail channel for in-person transactions in South Korea On June 30, the Yonhap news agency has announced.
As the Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) company concentrates on becoming more “shoppable,” South Korea already has a thriving live-streaming commerce industry driven by digital giant Naver (035420.KS). This makes it an ideal test market for the global powerhouse.
The new channel will launch as a 90-day project and operate in Korean.
According to sources who are aware with the situation, it would initially give businesses a live-commerce platform and intends to livestream shopping material from roughly 30 brands, according to Yonhap and other Korean media.
Yonhap state it is the first official shopping channel on YouTube for any nation.
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A spokeswoman for YouTube remarked, without going into further detail, “We may experiment with a variety of YouTube Shopping features from time to time.”
Google’s Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler stated in February that there was “lots of potential in making it easier for people to shop from the creators, brands, and content they love” due to advertisers’ reduced spending and competition from platforms like TikTok.
On Wednesday morning, the stock of the company Naver dropped by 4%, while that of the retailer Lotte Shopping dropped by 3.3%.
According to Kyobo Securities, the South Korean live commerce sector, which is now dominated by Naver with a 60% market share, is expected to expand to 10 trillion won ($7.7 billion) this year from 2.8 trillion won in 2021.
