For several decades, South Korea’s cosmetics industry has been dominated by two major players -- Amorepacific and LG Household & Health Care, together accounting for over 60 percent of the market as of end-2019. As the LG affiliate possessed a more diverse portfolio, also covering daily necessities such as toothpaste and detergent, beauty-dedicated powerhouse Amorepacific had an upper hand over its rival in the cosmetics sector. But this is no longer the case, as runner-up LG has at

Korean Air’s plan to take over Asiana Airline has been approved by antitrust authorities in Turkey, the airline said Wednesday. The Turkish Competition Authority, a government organization dedicated to ensuring market competitiveness, gave the Korean airline the green light last Thursday, becoming the first foreign country to clear one of the hurdles facing the high-profile acquisition. Last month, the South Korean national flag carrier filed for a merger and acquisition review to the an

E-commerce platform Cafe24 will host a webinar on global sales strategy for Facebook and Instagram next week, the company said on Wednesday. The platform said the event will provide viewers with strategic help in reaching over three billion online users on Facebook-owned apps using Facebook Shops. Dubbed “Facebook‘s Global Commerce Success Strategies Using Shops,” the occasion is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. on Feb. 17, and will be offered for free to those who sign up

The Korea Craft Brewers Association and dozens of brewers have called on the government to allow online beer sales to help offset the blow from the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement on Monday, the group said sales of craft beer drastically dropped last year as main sales channels such as restaurants and pubs were forced to close due to social distancing rules. “Sales dropped by half at the minimum and up to 90 percent in worse cases, forcing staff to take a leave of absence or busines

Online e-commerce company WeMakePrice named its former vice president as the new CEO in an announcement Monday. Ha Song, who had been the acting CEO since last August after former CEO Park Eun-sang took a leave of absence for health reasons, will now lead the company. “We plan to strengthen our industry-leading curation service and invest in technology advancement in order to become a competitive platform strictly from the users’ perspective. Ha joined the company in 2015 and has

In a positive sign for the Korean beauty industry, South Korea’s cosmetics exports enjoyed a 16.1 percent year-on-year increase last year despite the coronavirus pandemic. Korea’s total cosmetics exports reached $7.57 billion in 2020, the latest data from the Korea Customs Service and the Korea Cosmetic Association revealed on Sunday. The country’s cosmetics exports had enjoyed double-digit growth rates every year since 2012 until the figure dipped to 4.2 percent in 2019. W

Shinsegae Department Store said on Sunday that gifts for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday have logged the company‘s best-ever sales this year, boasting a 51.3 percent year-on-year increase. The figure shows sales generated from Seollal gifts between Jan. 4 and Feb 5. The department store said the jump in sales reflects the growing demand for premium gifts this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the country’s decision to loosen its anti-bribery rules that cap

Launching a beauty brand has become easier than ever, thanks to the growing market and original design manufacturers. And for celebrities who want to capitalize on their fame and branch out into the cosmetics industry, this has been good news. International celebrities including Kylie Jenner and Rihanna have successfully launched their own brands Kylie Cosmetics and Fenty Beauty in recent years while South Korean makeup artist and vlogger Pony – who has over seven million followers on Ins

Jamon, a dry-cured ham produced in Spain, was named the fastest emerging item on food delivery app Yogiyo last year, thanks largely to the popularity of wine amid the pandemic. The Spanish ham saw a 515 percent year-on-year jump in order volume, enjoying the biggest growth apart from already-beloved items such as fried chicken, pizza and Chinese food, Delivery Hero Korea, the company behind the app, said Thursday. “It appears record-breaking wine sales that caused an increase in home dri

South Korean industrial conglomerate Hyosung Group, strong in its textile and chemical businesses, has named Cho Hyun-sang its new vice-chairman, the company said on Thursday. The move comes nearly four years after Cho was appointed president in 2016. In an announcement of his new role, the company explained the appointment is to strengthen responsible management and proactively respond to the “changing business environment as a result of the prolonged coronavirus pandemic and the fourth

Korean Air is taking steps to launch its own international sightseeing flights without landing, the airline said on Wednesday. “We are taking necessary steps to operate chartered flights and the sales dates are under discussion,” one official at the airline said. The airline’s first international “flight to nowhere” has been given the green-light by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to take off on Feb. 27, the official added. The travel route is y

South Korea’s top steel giant Posco is vowing to put safety as its top priority, urging employees to reject unsafe working conditions, following a spate of deaths from industrial accidents in recent years. During recent visits to the company’s steelworks in Pohang and Gwangyang, Chairman Choi Jeong-woo allocated most of his speeches to safety policies, the company said Wednesday. “When workers are tasked with work where safety is not ensured or they feel physically or emot

Delivery Hero Korea, the Germany-based company behind major food delivery app Yogiyo, is facing a court battle ahead of the planned sale of its stake in the app. South Korean prosecutors last week indicted DH Korea under the country’s monopoly regulation and fair trade act, accusing it of having coerced restaurants to offer lower prices on the Yogiyo platform than on competing platforms, according to the legal circle on Monday. It is alleged that between July 2013 and December 2016 the

From #OurHome #HomeDecorating to #OnlineHousewarming, Instagram lately is filled with hashtags and posts from users showcasing their homes and stylish interior design ideas. “May I know where you got the bookcase?” one comment read in response to a post showing a well-lit, nearly all-white room. Dambi, an author and blogger, who shared the original post on Instagram replied that it was from furniture company Basic Gagu. These types of interactions are fairly common in the online sp

The Korea Public Health Association has teamed up with P&G Korea’s Febreze to launch a public hygiene campaign to keep homes clean. The new campaign is designed to raise awareness of what has been dubbed the “new normal” lifestyle that has emerged in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, putting an emphasis on hygiene at home, the company said. The four-step guidelines touch on sterilization, disinfection, ventilation and humidity and also lays out ways to disinfect item

Korea Airports Corp., Hanwha Systems, SK Telecom and the Korea Transport Institute have formed a four-way partnership to accelerate the commercialization of flying cars, or urban air mobility vehicles. Leaders from each party signed a memorandum of understanding at KAC’s headquarters in western Seoul on Wednesday as part of efforts to form a “dream team” with the goal of trialing commercial air taxis by 2025, the corporation announced on Thursday. The move will see KAC build

Distiller HiteJinro has released a wide range of wine gift sets ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday season. The new range includes bottles from internationally renowned wineries such as Cambria, Sterling and Tarapaca as well as Marques de Riscal and Taittinger. From best-value bottles to limited editions, the gift sets range in price from 50,000 won ($42.25) to 1 million won. Hailing from multiple countries with different tastes, they make for great gifts to loved ones during Seollal, the comp

Philip Morris Korea Inc. has been certified as the ‘Top Employer Asia Pacific 2021’ for its ‘people-centric’ HR philosophy and management amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said Tuesday. The South Korean unit of the global cigarette and tobacco manufacturing firm also bagged the ‘Top Employer South Korea 2021’ prize from Top Employers Institute, while winning the honor for the Asia Pacific region for two years in a row. Praveen Upadhyay, Philip Morris

South Korean retailers are rushing to tap the emerging new trend of live commerce, which combines streaming and e-commerce. Hyundai Home Shopping said on Monday it aims to reach 100 billion won ($90.5 million) in sales from its live commerce channel this year, after their latest data showed sales jumped fivefold last year. Sales generated from the company’s live commerce business in 2020 reached 28.5 billion won, up nearly 500 percent from 5 billion won in 2019, according to their latest

South Korean whiskey company Golden Blue said Monday that its Golden Blue Sappirus will hit the US market in February. Having been shipped Saturday, the blue-bottled whiskey will become the country’s first locally produced whiskey to be exported to the US, the largest market in the world, the company said. “Entering the US market is moving one step closer to the globalization of K-alcohol drinks,” said CEO Kim Dong-wook. Kim added that he’s certain that three years of