The average lifespan of a coffee shop is just over three years, a survey suggests.
Statistics Korea analyzed the lifespan of 100 small business sectors since 2018, which show that they lasted an average of eight years and nine months.
The shortest-lived business was online retail with two years and seven months on average, followed by coffee shops with three years and a month, and gyms with three years and six months. Most of them were family-run.
But new online retailers and coffee shops are still springing up left, right and center, intensifying fierce competition in an increasingly saturated market.
Small retailers, which typically use online shopping platforms like Coupang and Naver, multiplied at a rate of a whopping 148.4 percent from 218,616 five years ago to 540,388 late last year. Over the same period, coffee shops increased 80 percent from 51,696 to 93,069.
Some businesses benefited from the coronavirus pandemic. The number of guesthouses and B&Bs jumped 115.2 percent over the last three years as demand for domestic travel increased while borders were closed.
