K-pop a boon for cosmetics shops

Kim Hyun-joong is looking at you. From a poster outside of a hair salon, from a shop window, in a TV commercial or on local social media sites, the South Korean singer and actor decorates various advertisements in Phnom Penh.

But it isn’t just about his music – it’s about a popular lifestyle and the art of making business out of it. Hyun-joong serves as a figurehead for shops that are swimming with the “Hallyu”, or “Korean Wave”: the popularity of the country’s culture that is spreading all over Asia.

Boosted by the attractiveness of Hallyu, South Korean-made cosmetics products – hair, skin and face care – have become top-sellers on the continent, and it seems like the Cambodian market is the next to be conquered. …

Data by the Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association shows that exports of Korean-made cosmetics accounted for $1.067 billion in 2012, up 30.3 per cent from a year earlier.

In the first quarter of this year, Cambodia imported cosmetics products worth $9.9 million, an increase of 130 per cent compared with the same period last year, data by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce show Seoul-based The Face Shop opened their first store in City Mall in August 2010. Now they have four  locations in Phnom Penh, and one in Battambang that opened earlier this year, making them the largest South Korean cosmetics brand in Cambodia. …

Cambodia’s beauty business is gradually growing as incomes are rising and the country’s middle-class increases. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062766507/Business/k-pop-a-boon-for-cosmetics-shops.html