The first edition of the K-Beauty in Paris show was held last September 22 by Kotra, a Korean trade promotion governmental agency. It gathered 22 brands from South Korea willing to introduce themselves to French investors or looking for distributors to enter the European market. They had brought their latest cosmetics & packaging innovations with them.
It is now a known fact that the world is being overrun with Korean cosmetics and trends. The following figures just speak for themselves:
• Korean brands started their market breakthrough with China, the world’s second cosmetics market, behind the United States: in 2015, Korea became the second cosmetic product supplier, behind France
• At the same time, Korean cosmetics flooded across Asia: between 2014 and 2015, exports increased by 101.5% to China, 67.3% to Hong-Kong, 37.1% to Singapore, and 89.1% to Kazakhstan
• Europe is no exception: Korean cosmetics exports rose by 158.8% to France, 454.9% to Italy, 77.7% to the Netherlands, and 62.6% to Poland
• Thanks to cosmetics, Korea achieved a trade surplus for the first time in 2013: it became the 6
th
world exporter in 2014 and 2015, behind France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy
• Between 2008 and 2013, Korea became the fastest-growing market (26.9%), far ahead of France (6.3%), Japan (5.3%), the United Kingdom (3%), or Germany (2.8%)…
Where does K-success come from?
According to Kotra, ‘no one can talk about K-Beauty without mentioning Hallyu, the Korean cultural wave.’ They explain that ‘the success of Korean music bands or TV …
