Major Change Underway in Wet Tissue Market

SEOUL, KOREA- Korea’s wet tissue market is facing a major change.In the past, the domestic wet tissue market was dominated by a handful of major local companies like Yuhan Kimberly and foreign brands such as Feudal of Germany.

Today, however, a group of small- and medium-sized companies, including Suomi and Mondoudou, are threatening the dominant position of the incumbents, on the back of their strength in online sales.

The size of Korea’s wet tissue market amounted to 260 billion won last year, up 13 percent from a year ago. The size of the market, which stood at a mere 90 billion won in 2008, marked a four-fold growth in such a short period of four years.

Amid growing interest in sanitary matters, the sales of baby wet wipes, as well as those of general wet tissues for adults, have increased at a rapid pace.

The sales of wet tissues are expected to grow further this year, led mainly by the growth in online sales. The online sales of wet tissues, which amounted to about 100 billion won, or 38 percent of total sales, last year, are expected to have a larger share than brick-and-mortar sales.