YouTube will launch a live commerce shopping channel in South Korea on June 30, 2023, according to reporting by the Yonhap news agency as well as other publications. The channel, which will debut with approximately 30 brands, will mark YouTube’s first official shopping channel anywhere in the world.
The channel recently took steps to woo creatives with new monetization tools, including lowering the minimum number of subscribers, uploads and views needed to qualify for fan funding features. In July 2022 YouTube teamed up with Shopify to facilitate in-platform shopping via the “Explore” tab on its site.
A YouTube official quoted by Yonhap, which receives funding from the South Korean government, said “YouTube is committed to building an engaging, informative and entertaining shopping experience for all users, including in Korea. To do this, we may experiment with a variety of YouTube Shopping features from time to time as we continue to work hard to optimize and deliver the best experience for our users.”
