On June 30, YouTube will launch its first official shopping channel for live commerce in South Korea, Yonhap reported Wednesday.
South Korea, driven by tech behemoth Naver (035420. KS), is a good test market for the global heavyweight as it focuses on becoming more “shoppable.”
The Korean-language channel will launch as a 90-day project. Yonhap and other Korean media said it would initially give a live-commerce platform to corporations and livestream shopping content from roughly 30 brands.
According to Yonhap, it is YouTube’s first official shopping channel. YouTube Korea didn’t respond.
Google’s Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said 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 cutting spending and competition from platforms like TikTok.
On Wednesday morning, Naver lost 4%, and Lotte Shopping (023530. KS) fell 3.3%, compared to the market’s 0.5% drop (.KS11).
According to Kyobo Securities, Naver holds around 60% of South Korea’s live commerce sector, expected to expand to 10 trillion won ($7.7 billion) this year from 2.8 trillion won in 2021.