[Courtesy of Daangn]
Daangn attributed its success to matching local customers who are nearby through a "hyper-local" service that links customers within the limited geographic area where sellers can deliver products to customers in the minimum time, or vice versa. Daangn began service in 2015 by displaying secondhand items sold in a radius of six kilometers (3.7 miles) from addresses registered by GPS-authenticated customers.
"We will continue to innovate ourselves to become a top hyper-local service operator that connects and delivers local information and upgrade the quality of life," Daangn CEO Kim Yong-hyun said in a statement on April 12. He said that the service has become a true community-based customer-to-customer trading service by regulating ordinary retailers from selling items.
South Korea's secondhand trading service market bloomed in 2020 to reach about 5.2 trillion won ($4.6 billion). Nelsen Koreanclick, an online market research firm, said that middle-aged consumers have habitually used secondhand trading service apps with online community features that allowed users to mingle with each other and share information.
South Korea's "Bbali Bbali" (hurry hurry in Korean) culture was another factor that boosted the hyper-local service market in 2020 when logistics services based on their one-day delivery system had to shut down from time to time due to COVID-19. The country's 160 trillion-won ecommerce market froze when logistics centers faced huge congestion. It took days, even a week for a parcel to reach its destination.
Disturbed by the unexpected delay in delivery, consumers turned to the secondhand market where they can find nearby sellers with items at affordable prices. Nielsen Koreanclick said that about 50 percent of mobile secondhand trading service users in 2020 were in their 40s and 50s. They used the hyper-local service to buy daily supplies.
"I bought a 10 kilogram (22 pounds) bag of rice from a neighbor at a good price through Daangn Market. The seller even delivered the rice to my doorstep," Jeong Won, a 49-year-old businessman living in the southern port city of Mokpo, told Aju Business Daily. "It is so convenient," he said.
Daangn, which began servicing in Britain in 2019 under the name of KARROT, has expanded its service to online secondhand trading service markets in the United States and Japan.
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