"We have entered an era where content itself becomes the store."
At the media day for 'Creator Commerce Festival Korea (CCFK) 2026' held at COEX in Seoul on the 22nd, Seong Dong-hoon, head of the Platform Division in the Commerce Business Unit at CJ ENM, described the changes in the online shopping market in these terms.
He explained that the market's center of gravity is shifting from 'purpose-driven shopping,' where consumers directly search for and purchase products, to an era of 'discovery-based and relationship-based shopping,' where consumers discover and buy products through content introduced by creators.
In line with this trend, CJ OnStyle has identified creator commerce as a new growth engine. Creator commerce is a business that connects creators' content and fan bases from product discovery all the way to purchase.
The company plans to fully pioneer the 'Korean-style creator commerce' market by combining its content production capabilities accumulated in mobile live commerce with artificial intelligence (AI) and data to connect brands and creators.
To this end, CJ OnStyle will strengthen its brand-creator matching capabilities using data and AI. This involves combining SNS user reactions, creator content analysis data, and actual purchase conversion data to identify suitable collaboration partners. The core of this strategy is to elevate the matching process, previously performed directly by staff, into a data-driven operation.
The company will also actively utilize 'ONTNER,' a creator matching platform launched last September. Through ONTNER, it supports the entire process from product exploration and creator matching to content production, sales, settlement, delivery, and customer service (CS). It also plans to leverage the content production capabilities of over 100 professional PDs to support not only group buying but also in-house brand development and global expansion.
Its growth targets are aggressive. CJ OnStyle projected that creator commerce transaction volume this year will increase by 3.3 times compared to last year, while the number of collaborating creators will grow by 23 times.
Building on this foundation, the company aims to cultivate 100,000 commerce-specialized creators and expand related transaction volume by 35 times compared to 2025 by 2030. It also plans to raise the share of creator commerce in mobile content commerce transaction volume from 9% last year to 50% by 2030.
On site, it was also assessed that CJ OnStyle can connect the capabilities built in its existing home shopping and mobile live commerce businesses to new business opportunities.
Prof. Kim Do-hyun of the Kookmin University evaluated CJ OnStyle as a 'pioneer creator commerce company' and described its attempt to step up as a connector between brands and creators beyond TV and mobile live commerce as a 'bold challenge.'
"I expect that during this period when platform dominance is shifting, there will be an opportunity to pursue a massive chance," Kim said.
Seong said, "We want to grow into a platform that leads the domestic market" and "We aim to evolve into a platform that introduces K-lifestyle to the world."
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