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The South Korean retail group and tech giant are joining forces as the country’s e-commerce arms race heats up, The Korea Herald reports.
In addition to a strategic partnership agreement the companies signed this week, Naver will buy 150 billion won (around $133 million) and 100 billion won ($88.8 million) worth of stocks in Shinsegae’s discount store operator E-mart and fashion arm Shinsegae International respectively. In turn, the two companies will buy 250 billion won ($222 million) in Naver shares amounting to 0.4 percent of the business.
By fusing Shinsegae’s online and offline retail prowess with Naver’s advanced tech ecosystem, the move will aim to create a powerful retail ecosystem and bring together 450,000 sellers and 74 million users. The partnershipi comes on the back of e-commerce giant Coupang’s $4.6 billion US IPO and amid reports that Shinsegae Group is circling eBay’s Korean business, which was the market’s third-largest e-commerce firm in 2020 with a 12.8 percent market share, according to Euromonitor.