The Growth of K-Beauty
“Everyone laughed at my dream at first.”
Said SoHee Kim, the founder of Style Nanda who has established history in the K-beauty industry. She is now an iconic business leader in the market since 2018.
On that monumental year, L’Oreal completed the full acquisition of Style Nanda with a total of $152M (152,000,000 KRW). It was a massive event since no company has ever made such global acquisition before.
Why on earth global companies be interested in such an exotic brand, located on the opposite side of the glove?
The South Korean beauty & personal care market is also growing every single year. Even the COVID-19 struck the whole nation, it is estimated that the total revenue in the beauty market is put to $11,500M (11,500,000,000 KRW) in 2020.
Reasons of the Growth in business
1. High Quality
The main reason would be its well-known quality. According to the research done by KOCCA, 21.4% of respondents stated that they use the K-beauty products because of it’s high quality and the effects.
The K-beauty industry indeed has its reputation. For example, the cushion foundation first invented by Amore Pacific in 2008 has formed a new base makeup trend.
Customers have loved its compact design and high coverage. So now, even luxury beauty brands such as Chanel, Georgio Armani, Tom Ford, et cetera are launching cushion foundations.
2. High Productive System
Also, Kolmar, Cosmax, and Comecca are Korea’s top 3 ODM(Original Development Manufacturing) company.
They run a professional production network that receives national recognition among major worldwide beauty companies. They are now handling over 70% of the beauty industry’s product productions in Korean, and it’s expanding worldwide.
3. Creative Indie Brands
Not only those large companies you’ve already heard of, but brand new indie brands also capture attention. As beauty & self-care markets are emerging, the consumer spectrums are spreading wider and eventually creates more niche markets.
Cruelty-free, vegan, gender-neutral is the upcoming keywords in Korea at the moment.
The Future of K-Beauty Industry
The worldwide Beauty Market revenue is around $497,277M at the moment, and according to Allied Market Research, the S.Korea Beauty market will grow up to $21.8 Billion by 2026.
So please keep your eyes on < Yuri’s Pouch> where valuable information will be updated every week, introducing remarkable k-beauty brands that are underrated, their unique philosophy, and interesting marketing plans. Let’s become a K-beauty expert with us :P