A New Lifestyle at Home
Kakao COVID-19 Report, Part 3
The Kakao COVID-19 Report uses Kakao’s service data to give us a perspective on how we are trying to maintain our lives and create a new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from January to June 2020, from multiple Kakao community and lifestyle services, including Kakao Talk, news, search, media∙contents, mobility, healthcare, e-commerce, fintech, artificial intelligence and social impact, were analyzed to create the Kakao COVID-19 Report. Our findings on the new normal, as are detailed in the Kakao COVID-19 Report, will hopefully be used as reference when building new strategies and policies for the future.
Part 1 is about how our lives have changed since the outbreak of COVID-19, told with data from Kakao’s many services.
Part 2 provides a more in-depth analysis by focusing on media and content consumption.
Home, the new base camp during COVID-19
People have made many changes in their lives due to COVID-19. They stay at home more and don’t go out as much as they used to. People no longer leave the house to eat out or have fun and they limit themselves to hobbies that can be enjoyed indoors. More people are talking about staying at home, since that is where they spend most of their time.
Part 3 of the Kakao COVID-19 Report is about how our lives have changed as our homes have transformed into our base camps during COVID-19.
# Life at home, as seen with KakaoTalk Gift
KakaoTalk Gift (“Gift”) is a feature in Kakao Talk that allows users to send gifts to friends and to themselves. User’s e-commerce purchase history is also included in the Kakao Talk Gift data. Therefore, Kakao Talk Gift data can be used as an index to measure e-commerce spending for ‘myself’ and ‘others’.
Let’s first look into how the Kakao Talk Gift transaction rate has changed in January and March of 2020 (Refer to Figure 3-1). Transactions in categories such as movie/culture (-54%), gift card (-39%), hair/beauty (-19%), humidifier/purifier (-22%) decreased in March compared to January of 2020. Meanwhile, transactions in sportswear (40%), cushions (44%) and other products that ease life at home have increased. Notice that more kitchenware, such as kettles/cups (47%), and home decoration items, including lighting (51%), are sold than before.
[Figure 1] Product that displayed the biggest fluctuation in sales before and after COVID-19Now, let’s dig deeper. We expanded our analysis to comprise the data of June of this year to see which products people bought as they became accustomed to staying at home. We were able to identify new purchasing trends that resulted from people spending more time at home. People made efforts to make their newfound time more enjoyable and they also made efforts to change the indoor spaces they were spending so much time in.
We saw a great increase of Kakao Talk Gift purchases in product categories such as kitchenware and pet goods, as well as more purchasing of DIY kits and home decor items. In terms of monthly sales, sales of board games and puzzles in April increased 716% compared to early January. Sales of gardening products increased 224% in April and fitness equipment increased 218% in May compared to the beginning of 2020.
The increase in demand for home fitness was evident by the increased demand for the Kakao VX's Smart Home Workout service.
# Trend 1: Home decoration
- Home decor, living room/kitchen and gardening products
(Home decor) Sales of home decor products skyrocketed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, sales through Kakao Talk Gift increased by 46% compared to January of the same year. Sales slowed gradually but have maintained an upward trend compared to the beginning of the year.
[Figure 2] Home decor product sales through Kakao Talk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)(Living room/kitchen products) Living room and kitchen products also saw a massive increase in sales. Sales of living room/kitchen products escalated in February, and increased up to 53% in March. Kakao Talk Gift sales in these categories are greater than in 2019.
[Figure 3] Living room/kitchen product sales through Kakao Talk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)(Gardening products) Gardening is the product category in Kakao Talk Gift to have seen the largest increase in sales during COVID-19. Sales of gardening products started to rise in February, exceeded 100% in March, and reached 218% in April. The upward trend, where sales increased by 100% compared to the beginning of the year, continued until June.
[Figure 4] Gardening product sales through Kakao Talk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)# Trend 2: Adding fun to staying at home
- Board games/puzzles, DIY kits, pet supplies, fitness equipment
(Board games/puzzles) Sales of board games and puzzles peaked during COVID-19. Kakao Talk Gift sales of board games and puzzles increased 643% in March, and by 716% in April, compared to the beginning of 2020.
[Figure 5] Board game/puzzle sales through Kakao Talk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)(DIY kits) Sales of DIY kits boomed during COVID-19. Sales in DIY kits increased steadily in Kakao Talk Gifts. The uptick in sales slowly decreased in April, but like the home decor products, have maintained a continuous upward trend compared to January.
[Figure 6] DIY kit sales through Kakao Talk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)(Pet goods) Kakao Talk Gifts sales for pet goods also increased by 37% in March, compared to early January, recording an average increase of 30% during the coronavirus pandemic.
[Figure 7] Pet product sales through Kakao Talk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)(Fitness equipment) Sales of fitness equipment also increased during COVID-19. When compared to January of 2020, fitness equipment sales increased 131% in February, 153% in March, 155% in April and 224% in May.
[Figure 8] Fitness equipment sales through KakaoTalk Gift (As of Jan. 2020)# Daily workouts from home
COVID-19 has made it difficult for people to gather together due to the fear of community infection. Working out at gyms is no exception. As a result, the number of people who go to gyms have decreased since the COVID-19 outbreak. However, people still wanted to work out and maintain their physical wellbeing, which translated into a rise of interest in at-home workouts, where people learn and train at home. Figure 3-8 shows the number of people who, in 2020, used Kakao VX's Smart Home Workout, a workout service Kakao launched in September 2019. Kakao VX is a company that utilizes IT technology to provide a fun and healthy virtual experience. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Kakao VX continues to see an increase in users (as of September 2020).
[Figure 9] Kakao VX Smart Home Workout service users (Weekly, Jan. 2020 to Jun. 2020)Let’s take another look at how Kakao VX’s Smart Home Workout users have increased, this time, per month. We see a sharp increase in the number of users after May 6, when the social distancing restrictions were relaxed.
[Figure 10] Kakao VX Smart Home Workout users by the month (Jan. 2020 to Jun. 2020)# Increase in at-home workout completion rates
The daily average workout time of Smart Home Workout users in 2020 was 400 seconds, or six to seven minutes a day. The workout completion rate in April of 2020 was 51%, which is a great increase from the average 20% recorded in 2019. “Workout completion rate” is the term used to describe the ratio of those who completed the Smart Home Workout. The increase in the workout completion rate shows that at-home workouts have now become a part of our daily lives during COVID-19.
[Figure 11] Kakao VX Smart Home Workout completion rate by the month (Jan. 2020 to Jun. 2020)Data Analysis and Methodology
- The Kakao COVID-19 Report analyzes data retrieved from multiple Kakao community and lifestyle services, including Kakao Talk, news, search, media∙contents, mobility, e-commerce, fintech, artificial intelligence and social impact.
- Methodology: The data are presented in the form of a graph to show proportional data or percentages, (%) in order to illustrate the changes that occurred before and after COVID-19. The data were retrieved from (either the first week or the entire month of) January to June 2020 and for some analyses, to September 2020. Some data were excluded.
- Example: The graph below shows that the number of users increased by 50% on the fourth week of April, compared to the number of users in the first week of January 2020. On the y-axis, values above zero (0) represent an increase in frequency, whereas values below zero (0) represent a decrease in frequency.
Kakao COVID-19 Report
Part 1: COVID-19 and Kakao Data
Kakao aims for the results of the Kakao COVID-19 Report to serve as a resouce in overcoming times of crisis. We hope that the implications of our data analyses will be used in building wise and resilient strategies or policies to navigate uncertainties and explore new business opportunities.
All copyrights of the Kakao COVID-19 Report are reserved by Kakao Corporation. Kakao Corporation strictly prohibits the use of the Kakao COVID-19 Report for promotional, sales, or marketing purposes. Kakao Corporation authorizes the reproduction and use of the Kakao COVID-19 Report within the scope of the Copyright Act, provided that all copyrights are fully disclosed.
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