YouTube expands shopping features in South Korea to help creators make more money

Seoul — Global streaming giant YouTube has expanded its shopping features in South Korea to help creators generate additional revenue through their videos, company officials said on Wednesday.

YouTube unveiled its shopping affiliate program for eligible Korean creators the previous day, allowing them to “tag” products on their videos, Shorts and livestreams to help viewers purchase the products on affiliated retailer’s website.

South Korea is the second country to have the program following the United States. YouTube introduced the feature in the US in June last year, reports Yonhap news agency.

In Seoul, e-commerce giant Coupang first joined the program to help introduce brands registered on its platform through YouTube, and the streaming giant plans to expand its partnership to other commerce platforms in the future.

YouTube also said it will launch a support function helping its creators easily open their own stores for YouTube Shopping later this month in Korea for the first time.

The function was jointly developed with Korean e-commerce platform company Cafe24 Corp., according to YouTube.

“Creators have always played an important role in providing viewers with useful and authentic shopping information throughout their purchasing journey,” Michelle Lee, head of YouTube’s Content Partnership in Korea, said. “We are excited to see how creative Korean creators will use these features to create new shopping content.”