Yanolja to make foray into South Korea's live commerce market

By Kim Joo-heon Posted : November 5, 2021, 10:58 Updated : June 23, 2023, 01:42

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SEOUL -- Yanolja, a leading travel and leisure activity reservation service platform in South Korea, will launch a live commerce service to gain a competitive edge in the country's mobile hotel and travel booking market. The company will attract customers to its online live shopping show with mobile coupons and special hotel deals.

Live commerce is a home shopping-like online service that uses mobile shopping platforms or social media for live streaming. Two-way communication with viewers is possible and various inquiries about the product can be easily made through video chatrooms. The adoption of live commerce service has been accelerated by department stores and cosmetics companies as demands for virtual shopping promotions had increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Data released by Kyobo Securities' research center showed that the domestic live commerce market, standing at about 2.8 trillion won ($2.3 billion), is estimated to reach 10 trillion won in 2023. The main consumer group of the live commerce service is millennials and Generation Z while TV home shopping channels are still consumed by middle-aged viewers.

Starting with its first live broadcast on November 5, Yanolja will offer hotel reservation deals, leisure activity programs and mobile coupons at discounted prices through "Yanolja Live," the company's weekly live commerce show. "We plan to gain competitiveness as a travel service app that provides differentiated travel-related services," an unnamed Yanolja official was quoted as saying.

Yanolja provides a super app service for travel including accommodation, leisure and transportation. The leisure platform provides interlinked booking services, with its solutions including self-service check-in kiosks. In 2019, the company has seen dramatic growth in its business with its accumulated reservation surpassing 20 million. In August 2020, Yanolja partnered with Bnetworks, an IoT company in Malaysia, to target the Southeast Asian market by expanding its digital-based room management service. 

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