InterviewK-beauty won’t last without brand philosophy, varied distribution: Taga founder

Taga CEO Seo Dong-hee with the company's cosmetic products / Courtesy of Taga

Taga’s founder and CEO believes the global popularity of Korean cosmetic products isn’t sustainable, noting that most brands lack a clear philosophy to appeal to international consumers. In addition, Korea’s retail distribution channels are concentrated on just a few major platforms such as CJ Olive Young and Coupang, offering limited choices for both consumers and sellers.

Seo Dong-hee completed Taga’s cosmetics lineup in November 2023 and launched sales last year. The Seoul-based company now ships to 19 countries, with a 20th on the way. Despite his short career, he has quickly developed a talent for appealing to international consumers, guided by a simple philosophy: Everything Taga makes must eventually return to the earth in a biodegradable state.

For Seo, it is hard to find an active Korean beauty brand with a philosophy as clear and compelling as that of Taga’s. The 48-year-old CEO said most Korean brands remain caught in a marketing skirmish, relying on specific ingredients and promoting them as rejuvenating elixirs. While that strategy may succeed domestically, he warned, it won’t sustain global success, where brand identity matters most.

“We call our business ‘conscientious beauty’ as we care for social values as well as financial values. I saw that no one here cared for that. But I saw a strong reaction to our philosophy overseas,” Seo said in an interview with The Korea Times.

“The global vegan cosmetic market is now [valued] at about 330 trillion won ($231 billion) and keeps growing each year by 7 percent. In comparison, the domestic market is less than one-hundredth the size of the global market. What made brands popular in Korea has been sales, not philosophy. Our business partners outside Korea loved our brand story. It makes a good marketing feature for them.”

To put his philosophy into practice, Seo collaborated with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to develop a carbon emissions calculator. Each Taga product displays the amount of carbon dioxide generated during its production, along with information on how the company offsets those emissions. For every product sold, Taga donates 170 won to the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute under the Korea Forest Service. The donations go toward maintaining a government-managed group of trees that remain uncut for 45 years, serving as a lasting source of natural air purification.

Taga’s website displays in real time the amount of carbon emissions the company has offset in collaboration with the Korea Forest Service. Captured from Taga’s homepage

All Taga products are designed without a metal spring in the pump, making the containers fully recyclable. On the company’s website, each product lists the volume of its natural ingredients — information rarely disclosed publicly by Korean cosmetic brands.

“We are advancing our carbon emissions calculator with the University of Chicago after American business accelerating firm Alchemist Accelerator selected us. This time, the device will run on artificial intelligence, making it more accurate and allowing us to share more transparent information,” Seo said.

Seo also criticized Korea’s limited distribution network, where a few e-commerce giants dominate the market and charge high platform fees. He said this structure makes it difficult for beauty companies that rely on these platforms to turn a profit.

“Olive Young and Coupang basically control market prices,” Seo said. “Olive Young takes more than 50 percent of each product’s sales as a fee. When these companies run major online promotions slashing prices, sellers like us see our sales drop, yet the platforms still take their fees. Many local cosmetic brands, although reluctant, continue supplying to these platforms because of their popularity with consumers.”

He said some countries have far more diverse distribution channels than Korea, citing the United States and Canada, where offline retailers like Sephora, Ulta and Shoppers Drug Mart continue to thrive alongside e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. “Such broad choices for both consumers and sellers make the market healthier,” he added.

Taga CEO Seo Dong-hee demonstrates in his office how the company highlights its eco-friendly philosophy on every product, Monday. Korea Times photo by Ko Dong-hwan

“In Korea, offline retail for beauty products has declined sharply in volume, transitioning to e-commerce. Who buys cosmetic items at Emart these days? Not many,” said Seo, referring to the country’s largest supermarket chain.

Preparing vegan brand

Seo traveled across the U.S. and Europe in 2016 and 2017 to study the local vegan beauty markets. “They were already far more advanced than Korea,” he said, offering a wide variety of products and compelling brand stories for consumers. He added that the difference wasn’t just in scale, but also in the public’s more mature awareness of vegan beauty.

When he established Taga in 2019, Seo initially targeted the global market rather than Korea, earning certifications for international business standards including Quality Management System (ISO 9001) and Environmental Management System (ISO 14001).

The company received the highest “excellent” rating from Dermatest GmbH, a independent dermatological testing institute based in Germany. It has also earned certifications from The Vegan Society in the United Kingdom, Eve Vegan in France and V-Label in Italy — some of the most recognized vegan certification organizations in Europe.

Taga’s largest global markets currently include the U.S., Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and three countries in the Middle East. Seo said none of these countries asked him, “Which product of yours is most popular?” because all of them liked Taga’s sustainable, eco-friendly philosophy.

“I was inundated with criticism from Korean beauty companies for my transparent, return-to-earth approach to business, which was unprecedented in the cosmetic industry,” he said.

“They said it was futile and, above all, [tried to] undermine my short career. But when I earned the B Corp. (a certification for socially responsible firms from nonprofit network B Lab) in February, I knew my path was the right one. I thank those Korean companies for pushing me to venture into the global market.”