Sales at Joonggonara, South Korea’s pioneer in online second-hand goods exchange platform, hit a milestone of 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in the year of pandemic that accelerated migration to cyberspace to shop and seek entertainment amid virus risks.

Cumulative transaction turnover at Joonggonara reached 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in 2020, up 43 percent from 3.5 trillion won in the previous year, the company said Thursday. Around 390,000 second-hand goods were posted for sale per day on average last year.

The company added 550,000 new users from February to July when the country was hit by the first wave of the Covid-19 spread. The number of consumers joining the platform has been increasing noticeably since the virus outbreak as more people turn to used items to save money, the company said.

It also spotted more exchanges for children products, toys, games, houseplants and interior items as people spend longer time at home.

The re-selling boom of some highly-sought-after items in short supply such as newly-released video games, game consoles and IT devices has also led to a sudden surge in transactions in the platform. Nintendo’s video game “Animal Crossing,” RTX 3080 graphic cards, iPhone 12, iPad Pro 4th Generation, Galaxy Buds and Starbucks’ promotional goods were among the hot items for consumer-to-consumer transactions last year, the company said.

In response to the surge in transactions, Joonggonara has strengthened its security protection. It adopted a safe payment system and artificial-intelligence (AI)-based monitoring technology last year to avoid fraudulent trading.

“The number of fraud reports has declined to less than 10 per day since we established a monitoring team ‘Joonggonara Clean Center’ last year,” an official from the company said. “We will continue to invest in technology this year to ensure safe transactions.”

By Pulse

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