South Korea
- GDP Nominal: 1,410 billion USD
- Population: 76.4 million
- Unemployment rate: 4.1%
- Ease of doing Business rank: 4th
South Korea has a market economy that ranks 11th in the world by nominal GDP and 13th by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is a developed country, with a developed market and a high-income economy. Having almost no natural resources, South Korea adapted an export-oriented economic strategy to fuel its economy, and in 2014, South Korea was the 7th largest exporter and importer in the world. The economy of South Korea is the global leader of Consumer electronics.
South Korea was one of the few developed countries able to avoid a recession during the global financial crisis. The economy is heavily dependent on the energy imports and the related refinery technologies.
Direct Selling in South Korea
- GDP Growth Constant USD 2014: 3.3%
- YoY Industry Growth Constant USD 2014: 8.7%
The Korean Direct Selling market is the 3rd biggest market in Asia and the 4th biggest market in the world representing 16.3 billion USD in 2014.
The specificities of the Korean market is that the Single-level marketing such as Door-to-door businesses, is preeminent over Multi-level marketing. The Wellness category accounts for 40% of the industry sales and the industry has been giving an empowering opportunity to millions of women as they account for almost 80% of the total number of distributors.
More than 10% of the South Korean population is involved in Direct Selling. The South Korean population is less than half of the Japanese population however, there are twice as many of distributors (almost 6 million in 2014) in Korea than in Japan.
The Korean market has been increasing at 8.1% CAGR and at this pace will soon overtake Japan on the world Direct Selling podium.
Sources: ASENSHIA, World Bank, WFDSA, Euromonitor, Wikipedia
CAGR: Compound Annual Growth Rate expressed in Constant USD 2014, between 2011 and 2014
