Last month, Hyun Jung-a boarded a flight from South Korea’s Incheon Airport. Around two hours later, she was back in the same airport and loading up on duty-free shopping, despite never landing in another country.
The Air Busan Co. flight, organized by Lotte Duty Free for its VIP customers, was Hyun’s first since the pandemic began and it didn’t cost her a cent. Because the route briefly departed Korean airspace and went over a Japanese island, the 130 passengers on board qualified to shop at duty-free stores in Seoul typically reserved for people who have traveled internationally.
Destination-less flights like these are an attempt by duty-free operators to salvage an industry decimated by Covid-19. Before the virus, business was booming the global duty-free market was worth $85 billion in 2019 and on track to reach $139 billion by 2027, according to Verified Market Research.
The popular video app is hoping to replicate abroad the success of its Chinese-only cousin Douyin, which racked up $26 billion of e-commerce transactions in just its first year of operation. TikTok has begun working with merchants in markets including the U.K. on ways they can sell products directly to millions of users within the app, people familiar with the matter say.
While TikTok has run promotional shopping campaigns in the past, the current trials are a precursor to a broader launch of a global e-commerce service. The prototype so far is only visible to select participants and it remains unknown when the company will kick off the formal launch. A Hype representative confirmed the test without commenting further. The label’s storefront under its TikTok account displays a range of merchandise with product images and prices, according to a screen grab provided to Bloomberg News.
ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok is working with brands including streetwear label Hype to test in-app sales in Europe, a move that will intensify its competition with Facebook Inc. and further blur the line between social media and online shopping.
The popular video app is hoping to replicate abroad the success of its Chinese-only cousin Douyin, which racked up $26 billion of e-commerce transactions in just its first year of operation. TikTok has begun working with merchants in markets including the U.K. on ways they can sell products directly to millions of users within the app, people familiar with the matter say.
May 12, 2021
SoftBank Group Corp. reported the highest ever quarterly profit for a Japanese company thanks to an unprecedented windfall from its investment business.
Net income was ¥1.93 trillion ($17.7 billion) for the three months ended March 31, the most for a listed Japanese company dating back to 1990, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Most of it came from SoftBank’s Vision Fund investment arm, whose ¥2.3 trillion profit was supercharged by the successful initial public offering of Coupang Inc. in March.
Masayoshi Son’s investment business went from being the source of the biggest loss in SoftBank’s history just a year ago to the main driver of earnings. A global surge in technology shares has boosted Vision Fund profits to new records for three consecutive quarters, raising the value of its holdings in the likes of Uber Technologies Inc. and paving the way for public listings from startups such as Coupang and DoorDash Inc.