Cafe24 takes off as a global e-commerce platform for merchants around the world

2018 platform expansion into Japan to enable local merchants to go global through Cafe24
YOY forecasts 30% sales jump & 3X operating profits from expanded marketplace integration & logistics

Cafe24, the first company to go public under the Tesla Policy, aims to become an e-commerce platform that enables anyone in the world to conduct online business in the global market. The Tesla Policy allows promising companies to go public even if they have not yet posted significant profits.

Global e-commerce platform Cafe24 held the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) press conference on Jan. 24 at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido. Here, the company announced that it will begin with the Japanese market in its journey to become a global e-commerce platform for merchants around the world. By entering Japan with its platform in the second half of this year, Cafe24 aspires to provide a foothold for e-commerce merchants in Korea and overseas to sell in the global e-commerce market.

Further, Cafe24 plans to expand its services in order to contribute to merchants’ sales growth by expanding partnerships with global companies like Pinterest and WeChat. Also, Cafe24 aims to minimize logistics costs and maximize shipping speed by expanding global logistics and third-party logistics (3PL) services. The company will provide non-face-to-face financial services by cooperating with financial partners like banks and Fintech enterprises. Meanwhile, Cafe24 will connect DTC merchants with partner companies specialized in product planning, production, and supply.

Cafe24 emphasized the company’s business model that boosts the e-commerce ecosystem containing merchants, partner companies, and other relative parties. Cafe24 explained its business model as a virtuous circle that starts with Cafe24 (1) lowering the entry barrier for entrepreneurs by offering its platform for free which (2) leads to an increase in successful DTC stores like IMVELY, 66 Girls, and HOTPING, (3) resulting in more e-commerce affiliated companies in payment, advertising, marketing, and marketplaces gathering on Cafe24’s platform – eventually contributing to further developments in relative industries. (4) Through this process, Cafe24 is able to utilize the gathered e-commerce big data as a basis for sophisticating its platform, offering new services, and expanding its business, which allows for the making of steady profit.

Cafe24’s performance for this year is projected to reach 180 billion won in sales and over 26 billion won in operating profits, which is a year-over-year (YOY) increase of 30% and more than 3-fold, respectively. Cafe24 succeeded in making a turnaround last year. Expectations for 2017 are approximately 138 billion won in sales and 7.7 billion won in operating profits.

Jaesuk Lee, CEO of Cafe24, said, “Cafe24 will always strive to provide more services so that anyone in the world with creativity can use Cafe24’s platform for e-commerce business.” He added, “Cafe24 will grow into Korea’s number 1 company and go on to become a global company. Cafe24’s platform will go beyond servicing merchants in Korea to emerge as a platform for merchants all over the world.”

Founded in 1999, Cafe24 is an e-commerce platform that offers various One-Stop services needed for operating DTC stores including online-store-builder, operation, shipping, and marketing services. By simply creating an online account, a merchant can build a multi-language DTC store in seven languages including English, Korean, and Japanese. Integrated services with over 80 distinguished global companies including Google, Amazon, and Facebook enable Cafe24 to provide merchants with localized global market expansion services while contributing to boosting relative industries. The continued growth of DTC stores using Cafe24’s platform resulted in the company achieving 6.5 trillion won in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) (based on the securities registration statement) and the company is seeing 20% average growth per annum.

About Cafe24

Cafe24 is a global success platform that provides a one-stop business environment for e-commerce merchants so that they can achieve continued growth by focusing on their creativity. Cafe24 has established an e-commerce ecosystem with 1.7 million Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) merchants and various global partners in areas like payment, shipping, and marketing. Cafe24 is poised for growth as more DTC brands and e-commerce participants continue to join the burgeoning industry.