The report assessed that the recent deterioration in relations between South Korea and China seems to have affected product sales, as a country’s national image has a sizeable impact on consumers’ decisions.
“The relationship between Korea and China must be improved to increase sales of consumer goods in China, and the expansion of Korean cultural contents into China is expected to have a positive effect on sales of consumer goods,” the report said.
In 2020, 78.7 per cent of Chinese said they had bought products from South Korea in the past five years, compared to 43.1 per cent in January this year, according to the survey.
Just over 58 per cent of respondents said they would buy Chinese products over South Korean products, which was a decrease from 80.3 per cent in 2020. In contrast, there was an increase of more than 10 per cent among respondents who said they would buy European and American products over Korean products.
Respondents in their 20s and 30s showed the most pronounced drop in buying South Korean products, with the proportion of those spending money on Korean goods in the past five years halving in the past three years.
In 2020, 83.3 per cent of respondents in their 20s said they had bought South Korean products in the past five years, compared to 41.2 per cent in 2023. The figures for those in their 30s were nearly similar – 84.8 per cent in 2020 and 40.4 per cent in 2023.
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In contrast, respondents in their 50s showed a more moderate decrease of around 20 per cent over the same period.
The change in attitude was most pronounced in Shanghai and Beijing, where more than 80 per cent of respondents had bought Korean goods in 2020, but only around 40 per cent in both cities in 2023.
The survey was conducted by KITA’s Shanghai office between December 2022 and January, during which 1,000 respondents from cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Chengdu were asked various questions about their consumption habits.
