A recent live broadcast on a South Korean platform featured a man and a woman selling drinks made with fruits and vegetables, claiming the products had “cancer-fighting properties” and were “perfect gifts for parents during the holidays.” However, the drinks turned out to be regular foods, not certified functional foods. In another live broadcast, a seller claimed that a product could “completely eliminate heavy metals from the body,” despite the product not having undergone any clinical trials. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety later flagged the broadcast.
South Korea’s live commerce market is increasingly exposed to false and exaggerated advertising. Despite the market handling billions of won, with cosmetics sales reaching 5 billion won in just 30 minutes and robot vacuum cleaners selling 10 billion won in under an hour, there is no effective way to prevent misleading or exaggerated claims in real-time broadcasts. According to Labangba Data Lab, which tracks real-time data from 15 domestic platforms, the size of South Korea’s live commerce market grew from 2 trillion won in 2022 to 3 trillion won last year.
Live commerce involves selling products online through live video shopping platforms, where shoppers can interact with the brand in real-time. Major companies in South Korea offering live commerce include Naver Shopping, Kakao Shopping, and Coupang Live. On platforms like Coupang and Naver, only registered sellers can host live commerce broadcasts. For Coupang, this includes open market and Rocket Delivery sellers, while for Naver Shopping, it includes those who have sold 200 or more items worth 2 million won. In contrast, Kakao Shopping allows both registered sellers and the general public to host live commerce broadcasts.
Recently, YouTube, with more than 46 million monthly active users, joined the live commerce market. In June, YouTube launched its first-ever “YouTube Shopping Store” in South Korea, allowing viewers to purchase products directly through banners displayed during live broadcasts. YouTube has also partnered with major retailers like CJ OnStyle and 11st to provide sales channels.
While live commerce is often seen as an evolved form of TV home shopping, recent evaluations suggest it has regressed in terms of providing reliable shopping information. TV home shopping operators are subject to the Broadcasting Act, which requires them to have internal review bodies to assess the appropriateness of products, language, and background music before broadcasts. In contrast, live commerce sellers and platforms are not subject to this law. TV home shopping operators cannot use terms like “best” or “largest” without evidence, and claims about product efficacy must be backed by clinical trial results. However, in live commerce, sellers can make unverified claims like “I used it for a week, and it was amazing” without facing any penalties. For this reason, some critics argue that the live commerce market is becoming a “lawless zone” for deceptive advertising.
The success of live commerce broadcasts also depends on real-time chat interactions, leading some sellers to employ so-called “cheerleaders” who falsely provide positive feedback. In fact, open chat rooms on KakaoTalk, such as “Live Commerce Comment Exchange” and “Live Shopping Like-for-Like,” have emerged where sellers agree to support each other’s broadcasts by pretending to be actual customers.
