In recent years, the landscape of digital marketing in Korea has become one of the primary ways of engaging with the country’s 49 million internet users. Nine out of ten Koreans use smartphones, and with their love for all things digital, it’s no wonder that foreign brands are flocking to the country to market their products and services. 

However, breaking into the Korean digital marketing scene can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. The digital marketing landscape in South Korea is dominated by local platforms like Kakao and Naver, instead of Google. Additionally, digital marketing agencies will need to have an understanding of South Korean culture, language, and the Korean alphabet Hangul. 

This blog post will give you an idea of what this landscape is like, what platforms to use, and some tips on how to reach a wider audience with your digital marketing in South Korea. By following these tips, you can connect with more Korean consumers and boost your business in this booming market. Let’s get started!

Why You Should Enter the South Korean Market

South Korea is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, with a very stable economy that is the 4th largest in Asia and the 10th largest in the world. The country also ranks in the top 10 e-commerce spenders, with a quarter of its retail sales happening online. Domestic online purchases were worth $136.5 billion in 2020, an increase from $116 billion in 2019. The high penetration of smartphones is believed to be one of the primary drivers of this market’s growth since 64.5% of total online transactions were done using a mobile device. 

When looking at what’s popular in domestic online retail in South Korea, food and beverages make up 12.4%, home appliances and electronics with 11.8%, food services at 10.9%, and clothing at 9.5% make up most of the sales. Cross-border e-commerce, although not as huge as domestic, is on the rise too, with South Koreans increasingly looking overseas to find better deals on products. This portion of e-commerce was worth $3.5 billion in 2020. In South Korea, an overwhelming 97% of the population between the ages of 20-40 use online shopping. Add to the fact that South Korea boasts an internet penetration rate of a whopping 96% internet penetration while being the most WIFI-connected country in the world, it is no doubt that the South Korean market can be a very profitable market to enter for all kinds of businesses.

There is an educated and tech-savvy population in South Korea that has disposable income. They’re interested in quality products and are brand conscious. It is not only an attractive market but a relatively untapped one for foreign brands. With e-commerce on the rise in South Korea, digital marketing is obviously the best way to reach this online audience. 

The Digital Marketing and Social Media Trends in South Korea

Thanks to infrastructure developments, South Korea has some of the fastest mobile and broadband internet speeds in the world. This has resulted in the country having one of the highest internet penetration and smartphone usage in the world. This will only continue to improve as South Korea recently became the first country in Asia to launch a 5G network. 

South Koreans spend nearly five and a half hours surfing the internet every day, with over an hour of that time spent on social media. Over 87% of the population are active social media users, and mobile phones are the most popular type of device. As evidenced by the massive popularity of Korean drama shows, television and video-on-demand services are also used by many, Let’s look at these trends in a bit more detail. 

Use of Mobile Devices

South Korea is home to two of the largest electronics and home appliance manufacturers in the world, Samsung and LG. It is not surprising that mobile devices are at the heart of many Koreans’ daily lives. Samsung accounts for nearly 75% of smartphones in South Korea and has consistently grown by 50% year over year. This growth is not expected to slow down any time soon, since sales reached an all-time high in 2021 with the release of the Samsung Galaxy 21. 

Mobile remains the go-to for many Koreans when it comes to online searching. Local mobile messaging apps like KakaoTalk and Naver’s Line are used by many. The two companies dominate the digital landscape when it comes to mobile services, with instant messaging, social media, finance, and payment services all handled by them. 

The COVID-19 pandemic also caused a spike in smartphone usage as Koreans turned to social media, e-commerce sites, food delivery services, and gaming apps to get through the lockdowns. According to the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT, 99% of teenagers used a smartphone in 2021, indicating the growing popularity of smartphone usage among the younger generations in South Korea. 

Leading Adoption of 5G and AI-driven Technologies

5G technology promises data transmission speeds that are 20 times faster than 4G, allowing a viewer to download their favorite movie in high-definition within a second or two. Having started the rollout of this new technology, the mobile network operators are now expected to introduce products and services that make use of 5G to increase its adoption. 

Driverless cars are just one example of such a service, with artificial intelligence technologies expected to converge with 5G in order to deliver on this promise. South Korea is on course to become a leader in AI by 2030, with the government planning to invest 20 trillion won ($16.4 billion) over the next few years to develop networks, data, and AI fields. 

Growing Blockchain-based Industries

Expect blockchain technology to thrive in the coming years with the government spending billions to help develop the industry. Among the many projects announced are a 123.3 billion won blockchain complex capable of housing 200 blockchain companies and the ‘Blockchain Technology Validation Support in 2020’ program to provide funding. 

Telecom giants like SK Telecom are also planning to leverage the technology for processing payments, subscriptions, and authentication. With a tech-savvy user base and fast internet, it’s no wonder that many companies in South Korea, like Kakao, Naver, and Samsung, all have plans to implement blockchains in the near future. 

Social Media Influencers

‘Hallyu’ refers to the Korean wave of pop culture that has taken over the world since the 1990s, with K-Dramas and K-Pop at the forefront. One of the latest trends of this Korean wave is the rise of social media stars or influencers. The most prominent of these online celebrities have unique personalities that they have cultivated and loyal followers that are hungry for their content. 

The Korean influencers are often very candid about their opinions of products that they review, allowing them to build trust with their fans. Digital marketing companies and brands should take note of influencers that are in line with their own marketing strategy. Through collaborating with popular influencers, there’s a huge opportunity to engage with your potential customers through viral social media marketing. It’s a chance to get consumer feedback and build brand awareness. 

Cosmetics giant Amorepacific’s video with YouTuber Holy to promote their budget cosmetics line is one such collaboration that resulted in over 3.8 million views in the first month. Online shopping company Wemakeprice managed to sell over 100,000 products during their live broadcast program ‘How much did you sell?’ which included many social media influencers. 

Reaching the South Korean Audience

When trying to get the attention of the South Korean consumer, digital marketers need to know what platforms are the most effective in the country. Here we have provided a list of some of the most widely used platforms that South Koreans use for instant messaging, mobile search, and social media that digital marketing companies should be aware of. 

Use KakaoTalk Messenger Ads

If you’ve never lived in South Korea, you may have never heard of KakaoTalk. It is the number one messaging platform in the country, with 49 million active users every month and 11 billion messages sent every day. Since 2019, the service has enabled banner ads to be displayed in the chat list. The ads can be used to target your audience based on their interests, keywords, and demographics by analyzing their platform activity and search histories. With a majority of the country using KakaoTalk, it is a must-use platform to reach a significant portion of your audience. 

Use Naver

Unlike the rest of the world, which uses Google, South Koreans mainly prefer using Naver to do their research into products and services they’re interested in. Whatever they want to search for, you can bet it’s on Naver Blogs, Naver Cafe, Naver Shopping, or one of many other categories of search available on Naver. Many advertisers use search ads because of their relatively high Click-Through-Rate (CTR) compared to other types. A marketing campaign for the Korean market is not complete without incorporating marketing strategies for the biggest search engine in Korea, Naver.

When compared to Google, ads on Naver have limitations on the number of headlines, descriptions, and characters. Due to fierce competition, the bidding price is also generally higher than that of Google. On the other hand, Naver has over 75% of the market share in paid search, with over 80% of 20-year-olds using it. Your digital marketing strategy in South Korea is not complete if you’re not using Naver. 

Connect With Your Audience Using Social Media

KakaoStory is one of the most popular social media platforms in South Korea, with more monthly active users than Facebook and Twitter. If you take the time to build your brand here, you can let your customers do most of the work for you by leveraging them to market your products through organic reach. Social media influencers can also come in handy to increase your brand awareness using their trusted word of mouth and viral posts. 

While many local platforms dominate the Korean market, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram are still very much relevant. 60% of the country’s population uses Facebook, with its ads being another great way to reach your target audience. When using the platform, your social media marketing strategy can make use of Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences feature, which allows you to find new customers that share similar characteristics to your existing customers.  

Tips for Effective Digital Marketing in South Korea

When preparing content and advertising to carry your digital marketing strategy, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. You need to ensure that your content is optimized for mobile, and is original and engaging. You also need to be aware of the role that Pay-Per-Click (PPC) plays to help reach your South Korean audience more effectively. 

Most importantly, having Korean language content is a must for the Korean market. While a majority of the Korean population can speak a modicum of English, the fact of the matter is that if you are running marketing campaigns in Korea in English, your bounce rate will be very high and your conversion will be little to none. If you want to market to the Korean people, you need to localize and contextualize your marketing campaigns to match the Korean market.

Ensure Your Content Is Mobile Friendly

We have mentioned multiple times how South Koreans are fond of using their mobile devices. It goes without saying that any content on your site or the design of your ads needs to be optimized for viewing on a smartphone screen. If it looks messy or hard to navigate, you will lose a potential customer since they will quickly lose interest. 

Be Original and Engaging

South Koreans are educated and are on the lookout for high-quality content. For your message to connect with them, it needs to make an impression. A great headline can help to grab their attention. With so much content at their fingertips, Koreans will give a pass if the headline doesn’t instantly catch their eye.

Your audience will notice if you’re repeating what they already know, so it’s always good to be original as much as possible. With so much content already vying for their attention, you need to be short and to the point to not lose their interest. Quality content beats quantity here. The number of English speakers is increasing among younger generations, but it would be fruitful to localize your content to reach an ever wider audience.

Paid Advertising vs. Search Engine Optimization

As mentioned above, Naver is more popular than Google when it comes to search, and marketers need to be aware of how it works. Naver is a click-based search engine that displays everything from images to video clips, blogs, and more relating to the search query, all in one place. Naver is a very closed ecosystem and tries to keep users on Naver Search as long as possible as they browse this content. As a business or marketer, this means that you must work on Naver’s environment and CMS on Naver’s terms. As a result, the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) style of paid marketing may be more effective than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when compared to Google; however, it’s not an either/or scenario. A complete digital marketing campaign must include both SEM and SEO.

Post Click Optimization

Getting a potential customer to click on your ad is not enough. You need to carefully develop their journey towards a successful conversion. This means work has to be done to ensure the landing page content is optimized to reduce load times and deliver what your audience expects. 

Websites With Quick Load Times

Your South Korean audience is not used to waiting. If your landing page takes more than a few seconds to load, it is highly likely your potential customer will lose interest and exit. If it loads fast, it removes the chance of them changing their mind about entering your website. 

Maintain Consistency

It can be very annoying to click on an ad that says one thing, only to end up on a landing page that promotes something else. Great digital marketing should always deliver what is promised to your audience. If you’re promoting multiple products, it might be worthwhile to use different landing pages for them. 

Clearly Define Conversion Goals

Each landing page has to have a clearly defined conversion goal. Your call to action (CTA) should focus on one thing, whether it’s getting the visitor to sign-up or purchase a product, but not both. It’s best not to confuse your audience when they visit your website. 

Your Digital Marketing Strategy in South Korea

Digital marketers should pay attention to Kakao and Naver when devising their marketing strategies. Influencers’ roles in social media marketing cannot be underestimated either. It is also worth noting that 5G, AI-based technology, and blockchain tech will have a major impact in the near future. 

The South Korean market is eagerly waiting for more global brands to enter with their products. In order to reach your target audience, you need to be aware of current trends in South Korea and its digital marketing landscape. You need to know which search engines, mobile applications, and social media platforms are widely used in order to leverage the most effective methods to advertise your products. The success of your digital marketing strategy in South Korea depends on it.