“We were hit hard during THAAD, this area’s retail markets have diminished significantly. Normally, this time of the year there are lots of Chinese buyers, but now there are almost none,” said Park Joong-hyeon, a member of the Dongdaemun Fashion Town Special Tourism Zone Council.
“For some stores, 60 per cent of their sales came from China.”
South Korea’s cultural exports such as K-pop and K-dramas were the main targets of China’s boycott, with no explicit import ban on clothing. But Park said that was not the reality, as many wholesale distributors found their shipments denied by Chinese customs.
“Now the THAAD ban has been lifted and the Chinese do not delay or block our products in customs, but our customers in China did not come back to Korea – they already found new alternatives,” he said.
“There has been no rebound in sales for retailer fashion shops in Dongdaemun, many outlets are now vacant … While for wholesalers, they have recovered 40 to 50 per cent of sales.”
In light of the current situation, Ding’s employer, Jang Dong-youn, of the buyer’s lounge at the Dongdaemun Fashion Wholesale Market (DFWM) – a traders association partly funded by the Korean government – launched a live-streaming service for Chinese viewers after seeing their influence first-hand.
“In 2017, independent Chinese live-streamers started coming to Dongdaemun,” Jang said. “I saw lots of them walking around, shooting their shopping experiences as they visited stores. Before shop owners realised these influencers were famous, they would block them from broadcasting and using their shop spaces. But they soon realised the zhi bos could help with sales, so since then it’s become a common activity around here.
Zhi bo were quick to establish themselves as power players in Dongdaemun when they started attracting sales and new customers to the district’s 20,000 wholesalers.
While most of the zhi bo in Dongdaemun are self-employed and run their own shopping channels on platforms such as Taobao – the Chinese e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba (owner of the South China Morning Post) – an increasing number of South Korean businesses are employing their services because they understand the significance of their role in China’s e-commerce ecosystem.Why are ethnic Chinese leaving South Korea in their thousands?
Hwang Kyo-jun, a fashion designer and managing director of A. Glow, a Korean Taobao shopping channel, said live-streaming was now crucial to online shopping in China.
“Chinese people want the truth about a product – they want to know everything from the source, to the distribution channels,” he said. “They want to guarantee they are purchasing clothes that were made in Korea. In most Korean online malls there are photos, but no guarantee that what you get will be the same as in the photo.”
Hwang said he has seen a similar trend across Asia – live-stream shopping arising to alleviate consumer concerns about authenticity.
While platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram – all banned in China – are popular mediums in places like South Korea, Hong Kong, and regions like Southeast Asia, Jang said the zhi bo on Taobao have been the most influential.“Lots of Korean merchants want to connect with Taobao sellers,” said Jang Dong-youn of DFWM. “They are the hot [e-commerce] potato here in Dongdaemun.”
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For those like Ding Xiaoping, live-stream shopping hosting has become an exciting new vocation for millions of Chinese youths. She plans to continue working as a zhi bo for the foreseeable future, saying her family and friends support her choice of unconventional career.
And although she changes into more than 48 different outfits most nights, the excitement of broadcasting live hasn’t worn off.
“Live-streaming is like having a conversation with thousands of people, so it’s fun.” she said, “I give them travel advice on where to go if they come to Korea, and of course – tell them how to dress for the weather here.”
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Live-stream Seoul fashion hosts turn on style for China
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