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South Korea

Examining what it’s like to live, work and play in South Korea, our experts guide you through the nuances that define its culture.

Explore behavioural developments in South Korea

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Latest South Korea articles

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20 Sep 2024

Pet strollers outsell baby strollers in South Korea

signal·
20 Sep 2024

For the first time, sales of pet carriers have surpassed those of baby strollers in South Korea, highlighting the country's low fertility rate and evolving perspectives on gender roles, parenting, and family priorities, as more Koreans choose to invest in pets over children.

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18 Sep 2024

Korea's cultural influence in Japan expands to food

signal·
18 Sep 2024

K-food is making its mark on Japan’s food market with the growth of quick-fix frozen Korean-style meals. People are increasingly looking for authentic global food experiences and convenience, and they are taking the lead from wider cultural phenomena to find inspiration.

case study·
16 Sep 2024

How IITERNITI uses tech to grow its AI-curious fanbase

case study·
16 Sep 2024

While virtual K-pop idols have yet to hit the global mainstream, groups like IITERNITI are finding a foothold in South Korea, where Gen Z and Alpha are more open to the possibilities of generative AI. How have they managed to create a solid fanbase while also maintaining a sense of humanity?

case study·
13 Sep 2024

Why TAMBURINS designs luxury perfume for Korean senses

case study·
13 Sep 2024

How do you brand an invisible product? By building captivating worlds that immerse your senses. The creators of Gentle Monster foray into the olfactory with TAMBURINS. Inside its stores, huge, life-like sculptures and miniature figures come together, inviting shoppers to experience scents beyond smell.

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5 Sep 2024

Korean authorities to crack down on digital sex crimes

signal·
5 Sep 2024

Telegram groups have been spreading nonconsensual deepfake sexual images across South Korea, and the authorities have vowed to crack down on these sex crimes. Technology offers ample opportunity for abuse, and platforms like Telegram need to find a way to protect their users.

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4 Sep 2024

South Korea's Gen Y and Z choose side hustles over promotions

signal·
4 Sep 2024

A growing number of Gen MZ (Gen Y and Z) employees in South Korea are choosing to forgo promotions in favour of investments and side hustles. Youth in the country are pushing back against the extreme hustle culture, seeking work-life balance and financial gains outside of their jobs.

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Experts on Access

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Cultural Insider

Max Kim

Journalist specializing in research-intensive longform projects

Seoul-based journalist Max Kim has written on the intersection of tech and South Korean politics for publications such as The New Yorker, MIT Technology Review, The Guardian, covering topics such as the political and economic impacts of Big Tech, the platform economy, and the impact of both on human behaviour. He offers a big picture view of how tech interweaves Korean society and share reflections on what's next.

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Macro Expert

Ingyu Oh

Expertise in organisations and cultural studies

Ingyu Oh is a professor of business management and Korean and Japanese cultural industries at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan. He is also a researcher at the International Centre for Organization & Innovation Studies, Singapore. Before coming to Japan in 2018, he had taught at Korea University, Bristol Business School, Middle East Technical University, UC Berkeley, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, the University of Waikato, and the University of Oregon. His main teaching and research interests include organisational studies, innovation, international business, business history, and cultural studies. He is an associate editor of Asia Pacific Business Review.

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Macro Expert

Hyeyoung Woo

Professor specialising in family and health in Korea and the US

Hyeyoung Woo is a professor of sociology and the director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University. She received her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. Woo's research centres on status attainment, such as in education, work, and family, and its associations with health and wellbeing over the course of a person's life, particularly those in the US and Korea. Her current project is titled 'The Making of Women in Korea', funded by the Academy of Korean Studies. Her work has been published in several journals and books, including Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea.

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Cultural Insider

Lorraine (Lorr) Ye

Head curator for digital artists and K-culture writer

Lorraine (Lorr) Ye is the Head Curator at thehug.xyz, helping their community of more than 14,000 global digital artists navigate how to become entrepreneurs and multi-modal creators of the future. When she's not working on HUG, she is a features writer at AllKPop.com, the largest English-language K-Pop news site in the world. There, she focuses on marketing, communications, and PR and holds interviews with renowned artists.

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Sector Expert

Hawon Jung

Journalist/author on gender issues and feminist movements in South Korea

Hawon Jung is a former Seoul correspondent for AFP and the author of Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement. Jung spent over a decade writing about the Korean Peninsula, focusing on the military confrontations between the two Koreas and gender issues in South Korea. Flowers of Fire is based on her years-long reporting on the #MeToo and feminist movements in the South – an economic, technological and cultural powerhouse that still has one of the worst records on women's rights in the industrialised world. Her coverage of the country's #MeToo movement was also shortlisted in the Awards for Editorial Excellence by the Society of Publishers in Asia.

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