NHN Commerce to expand into Chinese market with Xinxuan

NHN Commerce, South Korea's major online company NHN Corp.'s online shopping platform, announced its strategic business agreement with China's leading e-commerce company Xinxuan Group, to expand its presence in the local live commerce market and collaborate on global distribution.

With this agreement, NHN Commerce anticipates that the sales of global brands through Chinese live commerce will exceed 3 billion yuan ($412 million) annually.

Established in 2017, Xinxuan has rapidly grown to become a prominent Chinese commerce company, focusing on live commerce. The company built a C2M (customer-to-manufacturer) system and sold over 13 billion products from over 10,000 brands.

Xin Youzhi, who serves as the group's leader and has 100 million followers, and Xinxuan-affiliated influencers, collectively have more than 800 million followers. They have conducted over 250 live broadcasts that generated sales surpassing 100 million yuan ($13.7 million).

While NHN Commerce and Xinxuan have collaborated for several years, this agreement will see both companies jointly pursuing distribution and marketing efforts within China. NHN Commerce will supply global and Korean brand products to Xinxuan's live commerce platforms hosted by influencers.

They will also collaborate on product planning, launch new brands, and explore international expansion beyond China. Joint investments and acquisitions of global brands are also on the agenda.

The synergy with brands acquired by NHN Commerce is also highly anticipated. NHN Commerce, which acquired WLab in April, is preparing for joint product development and Singles' Day live broadcasts.

Following the recent acquisition of Italian company Ikonic, NHN Commerce plans to introduce products from over 250 global luxury brands available on the former's e-commerce platform "Coltorti" to the Chinese market in collaboration with Xinxuan.

Lee Yoon-sik, CEO of NHN Commerce, expressed confidence in enhancing his company's global distribution business competitiveness through the latest strategic agreement with Xinxuan. "We will leverage active collaborations with leading global distribution companies to continue expanding the global commerce ecosystem." 

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com