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Social Media in South Korea – The mobile nature of social media networks is increasing. Globally, the number of people using mobile social media is growing and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. South Korea is not immune to this trend; the country has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world. The success of social networking services in the country.
Why Do You Need Social Media in South Korea?
South Korea is one of the world’s most connected countries. Over the last decade, advanced home infrastructure and free Wi-Fi across the country have all assisted in the increase of smartphone users. A smartphone is owned by 95% of the population. It is the world’s first country to market a 5G network. This book chronicles the life of a young child born into the digital age, from a young child born into the digital age to an elderly person learning the ropes of technology. It’s difficult to envision a time when South Koreans were not connected to the internet in some way.
The widespread use of social media began long before “western” social media platforms became dominant. South Korea has a very unique social media environment with homegrown domestic platforms such as KakaoTalk (a free mobile messaging app), Kakao Story (a social networking platform launched by Kakao), and Naver Band (a private group sharing app). Unlike most countries in the world, where Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon dominate, South Koreans have developed their own digital economic giants.
Digital Marketing Opportunities in Korea
Korea’s digital market is full of allure for marketers, thanks to its strong economic growth and excellent digital technologies. In 2019, the country ranked third in the world for online retail sales, with the B2C e-commerce market accounting for over a quarter of total retail sales. Korea’s digital advertising spending increased by US$1.2 billion between 2019 and 2021. Korea is not only thriving, but it is also rapidly expanding its digital marketing pie.
Video Marketing in Korea
These days, video marketing is all the rage. With videos – particularly short videos – being the most popular content type among Koreans and the amount of time they spend watching them, it’s clear that video marketing might become a dominant digital marketing technique in Korea. Meanwhile, video-based services such as YouTube, AfreecaTV, and Twitch have surged in popularity and become a major source of internet video for Koreans.
Webtoon Advertising in Korea
Webtoon is currently gaining popularity in Korea. It’s a digital comic with animations and cuts for a digital platform. In Korea, a few webtoon platforms dominate the market, including Naver Webtoon, Daum Webtoon, and Lezhin. By 2020, the webtoon market will have grown to 1 trillion KRW, and it is predicted to continue to rise. Naver Webtoon is thought to be visited by 8 million Koreans every day.
Buzz and Forum Marketing in Korea
The value of a forum is always found in the variety and quality of its content, as well as in providing a central location for individuals to ask questions and share their thoughts. The top ten most frequented websites in Korea are Namu. wiki, Daum.net, Dcinside.com, Tistory.com, and Ruliweb.com.
Most Popular Global Platforms for Marketing in South Korea
Korea’s most used social media platforms are YouTube, with an 85.9% of penetration rate, followed by KakaoTalk (80.1%), Instagram (57.5%), and Facebook (55.4%).
With over 16 million Instagram users in Korea, Instagram is the most popular lifestyle sharing site in the country. It had 3.4 million monthly active users in South Korea as of October 2020. The largest user group, those aged 25 to 34, accounted for 35 percent of the population, followed by those aged 18 to 24, who accounted for 27.5 percent. When it comes to creating awareness or reaching out to a younger audience in Korea, Instagram is the best social media platform to use.
As the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook can reach 13 million Facebook users in South Korea through advertisements. In Korea, Facebook is more popular among male users than other social media platforms, with around 60% of the ad audience being male, but this varies by industry.
According to a survey done in South Korea in 2021, Twitter was the most commonly utilized social media network by 7.3 percent of respondents. While this is an increase over the previous year, the numbers have been dropping since the turn of the decade.
With roughly 45.2 million followers as of April 2022, K-pop group BTS was the most followed K-pop artist on Twitter, considerably ahead of other K-pop artists, with boy group EXO coming in second with 12.8 million followers. Only a few solo artists were represented among the most popular K-pop acts, with the bulk being official group profiles.
YouTube
In Korea, YouTube is the most popular social networking platform. Koreans watch roughly 39 hours of YouTube per month. While Korea is known for its cosmetics, fashion, K-pop, and K-dramas, the country’s diversity allows marketers to cooperate with KOLs from other industries to create YouTube marketing tactics specific to local consumers. YouTube creators in Korea have recently become more polarized, with videos ranging from authentic everyday vlogs to well-planned videos aimed at various interests.
TikTok
Instead of collaborating with a film production staff, employed TikTok’s In-Feed Ads and screen recordings of users playing its games for ads. TikTok’s Automated Creative Optimization allows them to mix and match creative materials from different foreign campaigns to generate several commercials and then analyze the best combination of variables to reach their target audience.
Most Popular Local Platforms for Marketing in South Korea
Life revolves around a few giant IT businesses for the majority of us. It’s practically hard to go a week without using Google these days, and the same can be said for numerous social media platforms.You likely came upon this post via Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Unless you’re in South Korea and reading this. Because, unlike most other countries, where Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon reign supreme, Korea has created its digital economic behemoths.
Naver Band
BAND is a social smartphone app in Korea developed by Naver Corporation that provides a specialized space for group and community-related discussion. Users can establish and join private chat rooms, as well as access to the community board, shared calendar, polls, and to-do lists. In 2020, it will have 16 million users. BAND is particularly popular among individuals in their fifties, representing 58.5 percent of social media users. Only 7.8% of the population is in their twenties.
Kakao Story
Exploring Kakao Story, it’s a photo-centric social media platform established by KakaoTalk that lets users exchange photographs and thoughts, and it’s installed on 98 percent of Koreans’ cell phones. The bulk of its consumers are females in their twenties to forties. Photo editing, blogging, hashtags, and an ad-supported news feed are all important elements.
Naver Blog
In June 2003, the Naver Blog was renamed ‘paper,’ then in October 2003, it was renamed ‘blog.’ As of April 2016, it had 23 million users. From May 1, 2021, to May 1, 2021, Naver held an event in which users who posted on the Naver blog every day might win up to 16,000 won. However, due to some occurrences involving people with numerous IDs, the event was called off early. The majority of those who took part in the rally were critical of Naver’s response.
Kakao Talk
KakaoTalk is the most popular social communication app in South Korea, accounting for 96 percent of the social media messaging market. KakaoTalk has a monthly active user base of approximately 45 million. KakaoStory, finance, eCommerce, music, taxi-hailing service, trip planners, and payment functions have all become ingrained in Koreans’ daily lives, and the app has since evolved into a super app that offers a variety of daily functions and services, including KakaoStory, finance, eCommerce, music, and payment functions.
Cyworld
Cyworld may sound unfamiliar to non-locals when compared to other social networking platforms. It’s a social networking website similar to The Sims that allows users to build connections, share daily life, and engage with other users by utilizing avatars in the platform’s “mini-rooms.” At its peak, Cyworld had over 32 million users. It had 11 million subscribers during its business collapse in 2019.
Daum Cafe
Daum, which merged with KaKao in 2014, has a 7.72 percent market share in Korea’s search engine market. Daum also boasts a sizable Korean user base in their 30s and 40s. Blogs, cafés, reviews, Q&A, videos, photos, and shopping results are among the ads on Daum, which are similar to those on Naver. Daum differs from Naver in that its search results are not limited to Korean alone. It also helps with audience targeting by providing mobile app tracking and remarketing.
LINE
Line, abbreviated as LINE, is a freeware application for instant messaging on electronic devices such as cellphones, tablets, and personal computers. Users can send and receive text, photos, videos, and music, as well as conduct free VoIP calls and video conferences. LINE is also a platform that offers a variety of services, such as a digital wallet called Line Pay, a news feed called LINE Today, video on demand called Line TV, and digital comic distribution called Line Manga and Line Webtoon.
Conclusion
Korea is regarded as one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, with the world’s fastest internet connection. Thanks to its high internet usage rate and stable economy, Korea is an enticing market for businesses to join and get a piece of the pie. Webtoon, video, and forum marketing are all essential digital marketing methods for success in this field.