MXN is an integrated marketing partner for the successful entry of the Korean company Wincube Marketing into the North American market. MXN's professional marketing strategy and execution have contributed to Wincube Marketing's successful launch of the 'Korean-style gifting' culture in North America, as well as the local-product-based e-gift platform 'AAeGift' and the Korea-U.S. gifting service 'MarinaGift'. MXN is playing a crucial role in helping Wincube Marketing build new business models and secure a competitive edge in the U.S. market.
Original article : 'KakaoTalk Gifting' Creator, Will It Work in the 220 Trillion KRW U.S. Market?
The 'Korean-style gifting' service, commonly known as mobile coupons, is making its way to North America. Wincube Marketing, the company that developed KakaoTalk Gifting and other gifting services, is the main character. Based on its accumulated experience and expertise, the company is launching its own platform in the United States.
According to Wincube Marketing on the 21st, the e-gift platform AAeGift, based on local U.S. products, and MarinaGift, a cross-border gifting service, were launched last month, primarily targeting the North American market.
Wincube Marketing has been providing a variety of services based on mobile coupons since 2011. They initially proposed the KakaoTalk Gifting business model and later launched the B2B platform 'Sendbi' in 2019. Sendbi is a service that helps companies provide mobile coupons as gifts to their employees and customers.
According to Statistics Korea, the domestic mobile coupon market was worth 5.1 trillion KRW last year and has been growing by more than 10% annually. Thanks to this trend, Wincube Marketing also achieved a transaction value of 198.9 billion KRW last year, growing by 40% year-on-year.
However, there are limits to continued growth in the domestic market. Kim Seong-pil, CEO of Wincube Marketing, said, "The current domestic mobile coupon market is overly concentrated on the B2C-based KakaoTalk Gifting. Furthermore, the domestic B2B-based business platform market is not that large."
Therefore, Wincube Marketing decided to enter the U.S. gift card market, which was estimated to be worth 220 trillion KRW last year. Although the U.S. gift card market has traditionally seen high demand for physical cards, the proportion of digital gifts is increasing as non-contact living has become common due to the spread of COVID-19.
AAeGift, which has now entered the U.S., is a platform for gifting local U.S. gift cards. It was developed based on the expertise gained from Sendbi, and prior to its development, the focus was on securing local gift card products within the U.S. Currently, it has secured approximately 400 gift card brands usable in the U.S., including VISA, Amazon, and Apple.
MarinaGift, also launched in the U.S. market, serves as a bridge connecting gifting between Korea and the U.S. In the past, people in the Korean community in the U.S. and their acquaintances in Korea had to use international shipping for gifts during holidays, which incurred packaging and delivery costs and took a significant amount of time. MarinaGift makes it easy to send e-gifts, allowing U.S. residents to receive local U.S. products and Korean residents to receive domestic products. It also features a simple order and payment system to enhance convenience.
Currently, both AAeGift and MarinaGift are focusing on improving security, payment, and error prevention to stabilize the services and are working to reflect the needs of their registered customers.
CEO Kim Seong-pil stated, "With our experience in developing various business models like KakaoTalk Gifting and our advanced technology, our goal is to create new business models that quickly respond to customer needs in the North American market, which has a large B2B market. To survive the competition with numerous North American platforms, our service must be different, and the customer experience and expertise from Sendbi will be our differentiating factor."
He added, "We will spread the value and culture of 'K-gifting' to the U.S. market. We will proceed step by step with a long-term view, with the ultimate goal of an IPO in the U.S. market."