Social media key to success for K-brands, AI expert says
Indent founder and CEO Seldon Yoon introduces Indent M, an agentic AI tool that performs marketing tasks for companies seeking to expand globally, during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Indent
Indent CEO develops agentic AI for global marketing
Social media platforms have become a key marketplace for Korean beauty, food and fashion brands, and companies can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to make their products go viral in global markets at minimal cost, according to an AI expert in Seoul Tuesday.
Seldon Yoon, founder and CEO of Indent, a Seoul-based developer of commerce AI transformation (AX) solutions, said Reels and short-form content on Instagram and TikTok have become major channels for Korean consumers to discover and purchase new products. He added that creator content marketing has become more critical than ever, particularly for companies seeking to promote their products overseas and attract local consumers.
Yoon, a former global e-commerce consultant for Samsung Electronics, cited a sharp increase in K-beauty exports since 2024 as evidence of successful overseas marketing. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea's cosmetics exports reached a record $11.4 billion last year, up from $10.2 billion the previous year, with the United States accounting for the largest share.
“All K-beauty exporters to the U.S., without exception, tapped on local creator contents to draw viral attentions on social media platforms and generate demands,” Yoon said. “Their products then became hot during Amazon Prime Day and were listed high on Amazon categories. Having proven their popularity, the products then picked up local vendors with offline distribution channels.”
Chailee Son, left, and Sunny Dahye are U.S.-based beauty content creators, each with more than 1 million Instagram followers. Captured from Instagram
One K-beauty company that has made particularly effective use of social media, according to Yoon, is APR.
“APR, from the start, targeted ‘viral seeding marketing’ to promote its beauty devices,” Yoon said, describing it as the most effective of four influencer-marketing strategies. The strategy involves hiring local content creators to introduce target products, then identifying other existing online videos with similar content and spreading them further across social media platforms.
He added, “COSRX’s snail cream went viral through viral seeding marketing, too. When the marketing drew about 60,000 hits worldwide, it began hooking viewers to do a snail cream challenge. D’Alba Global, promoted by model Han Hye-jin since 2019, and Goodai Global, with its global sun care blockbuster brand Beauty of Joseon, also picked up from viral social media clicks before witnessing surging sales. Anua also did well on viral marketing on TikTok in the U.S. and began seeing rising sales three years ago.”
Yoon said creator content marketing, as demonstrated by leading K-beauty brands, represents the fourth generation of commerce, in which consumers' interest translates directly into purchases. It follows first-generation e-commerce through websites, second-generation mobile commerce and third-generation media commerce, in which brands place online ads on social media platforms.
Indent, Yoon said, has begun developing what it calls 4.5-generation “AI commerce,” which enables AI to automatically handle marketing and repetitive tasks for global markets. The company's tool is an AI agent called Indent M.
Vietnamese beauty influencer Nghiem Hoang Diem Anh shows off nail art created with products from a Korean company at a pop-up store during a Korean shopping festival in Hanoi, Aug. 29, 2024. Korea Times photo by Huh Kyung-joo
“Indent M automatically contacts global influencers in 72 countries for companies seeking to expand overseas in sectors ranging from beauty, food, fashion and lifestyle to hospitals, restaurants and pop-up stores,” Yoon said.
“The automated search and execution are based on data accumulated over the past three years of helping more than 100 brands run 930 campaigns and generate over 80,000 pieces of social media content. About a year ago, we began to realize that excessive amounts of time and manpower were being wasted on repetitive tasks such as searching for creators, managing campaigns and measuring content performance. We focused on automating all these tasks.”
Yoon said Indent M can be particularly helpful for small companies that lack the resources to conduct marketing campaigns on their own.
“Our AI engine will help even one-person companies achieve annual sales of 1 trillion won ($755 million). I believe companies using the tool can cut costs by up to 80 percent if they clearly define the roles of humans and AI,” he said.
“When I was at Samsung Electronics, we paid 43 billion won to outside service providers managing e-commerce platforms in 34 countries. If I were to perform the same job using Indent M, all I would need would be no more than 2 billion won.”