Are Korean boycotts intense but temporary?

SEATTLE — Just over three weeks after Starbucks Korea sparked outrage with its "Tank Day" promotion that coincided with the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, the company is already showing signs of a comeback.

Starbucks gift certificates have once again become the most popular item in the cafe category on KakaoTalk's gift service, part of Korea's dominant messaging app, after briefly losing the top position in the wake of the controversy.

The development comes despite continuing fallout from the incident, which sparked calls for a boycott, public apologies and a management reshuffle at Starbucks Korea. Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin also publicly apologized and recently assumed direct leadership of E-mart, the affiliate that oversees Starbucks Korea.

Despite the consequences, the episode revives a familiar question in Korea: Why do so many consumer boycotts appear to follow a similar pattern?

The Starbucks controversy is only the latest example.

The incident triggered one of the most visible consumer backlashes of the year. Customers shared photos of canceled Starbucks cards and refunded gift certificates, while the company reportedly saw a sharp decline in card spending and briefly lost its KakaoTalk gift card dominance.

Even so, Starbucks gift certificates soon regained their position, suggesting that at least some consumers were already returning.

The episode bears similarities to another consumer movement that swept across the country late last year.

Following a data breach, Coupang faced a wave of membership cancellations. Users posted screenshots showing they had canceled Coupang's paid Wow membership program and vowed to stop using the country's dominant e-commerce platform.

Coupang reported declines in active customers for two consecutive quarters, the first such downturn in its history.

But the decline proved temporary. During an earnings call, Coupang said returning customers and new subscribers had already restored much of the membership decline linked to the controversy. Many consumers who had publicly abandoned the platform eventually returned.

Another example dates back to the 2019 boycott of Japanese goods.

The boycott emerged after Tokyo imposed export restrictions on materials critical to Korea's semiconductor industry, sparking a nationwide "No Japan" movement. Few companies were more visibly targeted by the boycott than the Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo.

But the company returned to Myeongdong last month, seven years after becoming a symbol of the boycott. While the movement undoubtedly inflicted substantial damage, the company ultimately found its way back into the market.

The Starbucks, Coupang and Uniqlo cases differ in important ways. One involved a marketing controversy tied to a politically sensitive historical event, another a data breach and the third a diplomatic dispute between two countries.

Their paths back also unfolded on very different timelines. Starbucks is only weeks into its controversy. Coupang's recovery took months. Uniqlo's took years.

The broader trajectory appears familiar: intense public anger, measurable business consequences and eventually, signs of recovery.

That does not mean the boycotts were meaningless.

Uniqlo suffered years of lost sales and store closures. Coupang experienced an unprecedented decline in active customers. Starbucks endured public condemnation severe enough to prompt apologies from both its Korean operation and its Seattle-based parent company.

The fallout also forced companies to take action. Starbucks underwent a management shake-up. Coupang worked to restore customer trust. Uniqlo spent years rebuilding its business in Korea.

At the same time, the ability of many boycott targets to regain customers raises questions about the staying power of consumer anger in Korea.

Koreans have long used the idiom “naembi geunseong” — a pot that heats up quickly and cools down just as fast — to describe how public attention shifts away from controversies that once seemed all-consuming.

Still, it remains difficult to ignore the recurring pattern. Public outrage in Korea can spread with remarkable speed, amplified by social media and the country's highly connected digital culture. Companies can find themselves facing boycotts, protests and reputational crises almost overnight.

Sustaining that momentum, however, may be a different challenge.

The Starbucks controversy may ultimately become the latest test of that pattern. The anger remains visible. Critics continue to call for a boycott and the company's reputation has clearly suffered.

Yet Starbucks' quick return to the top of KakaoTalk's gift rankings suggests that public outrage and consumer behavior do not always move in lockstep.

Whether Starbucks will follow in the footsteps of Coupang and Uniqlo remains to be seen. But their experiences offer a reminder that in Korea's consumer landscape, the most difficult challenge may not be generating outrage — it may be sustaining it.

Jane Han is the North America editor for The Korea Times. Based in Seattle, she has covered business, culture and social issues across the United States for over 15 years. She previously worked at The Boston Globe.