SEOUL: South Korea’s online shopping hit a new record high last year as the COVID-19 pandemic raised demand for online food delivery services, statistical office data showed Thursday.
Shopping in cyberspace amounted to 192.89 trillion won (159.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, up 21 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
It has marked the largest sales since relevant data began to be compiled in 2001. The portion of online shopping to the total retail sale reached a new yearly high of 28.7 percent last year.
Online food delivery services surged 48.2 percent over the year to hit a fresh high of 25.68 trillion won (21.3 billion dollars) in 2021.
The culture and leisure and the travel and transport services in cyberspace soared 43.1 percent and 13.8 percent each last year amid the higher vaccination rate against the COVID-19.
Mobile shopping through smartphones spiked 27.6 percent from a year earlier to reach a new high of 138.2 trillion won (114.6 billion dollars) in 2021.
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