Social media key to success for K-brands, AI expert says

Seldon Yoon, founder and CEO of Seoul-based Indent, said Tuesday that Korean brands can use social media creators and AI to promote products overseas at low cost. He cited K-beauty brands that gained attention through viral creator marketing and said social platforms have become channels for product discovery and purchases. Indent is developing Indent M, an AI agent designed to automate influencer outreach and campaign tasks for global markets.

Korea’s cosmetics exports reached a record $11.4 billion last year, up from $10.2 billion the previous year, with the United States accounting for the largest share.

Yoon described viral seeding marketing as hiring local creators to introduce products, then finding and spreading similar existing videos across social media.

Yoon said Indent’s data comes from helping more than 100 brands run 930 campaigns and generate over 80,000 pieces of social media content over three years.

Indent M contacts global influencers in 72 countries and is intended for sectors including beauty, food, fashion, lifestyle, hospitals, restaurants and pop-up stores.

Yoon said companies could cut costs by up to 80 percent using the tool if they clearly define the roles of humans and AI. He compared a 2-billion-won estimated cost using Indent M with 43 billion won paid to outside providers for e-commerce platform management in 34 countries at Samsung Electronics.

Published Oct 27, 2026 4:16 pm KST

Indent CEO develops agentic AI for global marketing

Indent founder and CEO Seldon Yoon introduces Indent M, an agentic AI tool that performs marketing tasks for companies seeking to expand globally, during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Indent

Social media platforms have become a key marketplace for Korean beauty, food and fashion brands, and companies can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to make their products go viral in global markets at minimal cost, according to an AI expert in Seoul Tuesday.

Seldon Yoon, founder and CEO of Indent, a Seoul-based developer of commerce AI transformation (AX) solutions, said Reels and short-form content on Instagram and TikTok have become major channels for Korean consumers to discover and purchase new products. He added that creator content marketing has become more critical than ever, particularly for companies seeking to promote their products overseas and attract local consumers.

Yoon, a former global e-commerce consultant for Samsung Electronics, cited a sharp increase in K-beauty exports since 2024 as evidence of successful overseas marketing. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea's cosmetics exports reached a record $11.4 billion last year, up from $10.2 billion the previous year, with the United States accounting for the largest share.

“All K-beauty exporters to the U.S., without exception, tapped on local creator contents to draw viral attentions on social media platforms and generate demands,” Yoon said. “Their products then became hot during Amazon Prime Day and were listed high on Amazon categories. Having proven their popularity, the products then picked up local vendors with offline distribution channels.”

Chailee Son, left, and Sunny Dahye are U.S.-based beauty content creators, each with more than 1 million Instagram followers. Captured from Instagram

One K-beauty company that has made particularly effective use of social media, according to Yoon, is APR.

“APR, from the start, targeted ‘viral seeding marketing’ to promote its beauty devices,” Yoon said, describing it as the most effective of four influencer-marketing strategies. The strategy involves hiring local content creators to introduce target products, then identifying other existing online videos with similar content and spreading them further across social media platforms.

He added, “COSRX’s snail cream went viral through viral seeding marketing, too. When the marketing drew about 60,000 hits worldwide, it began hooking viewers to do a snail cream challenge. D’Alba Global, promoted by model Han Hye-jin since 2019, and Goodai Global, with its global sun care blockbuster brand Beauty of Joseon, also picked up from viral social media clicks before witnessing surging sales. Anua also did well on viral marketing on TikTok in the U.S. and began seeing rising sales three years ago.”

Yoon said creator content marketing, as demonstrated by leading K-beauty brands, represents the fourth generation of commerce, in which consumers' interest translates directly into purchases. It follows first-generation e-commerce through websites, second-generation mobile commerce and third-generation media commerce, in which brands place online ads on social media platforms.

Indent, Yoon said, has begun developing what it calls 4.5-generation “AI commerce,” which enables AI to automatically handle marketing and repetitive tasks for global markets. The company's tool is an AI agent called Indent M.

Vietnamese beauty influencer Nghiem Hoang Diem Anh shows off nail art created with products from a Korean company at a pop-up store during a Korean shopping festival in Hanoi, Aug. 29, 2024. Korea Times photo by Huh Kyung-joo

“Indent M automatically contacts global influencers in 72 countries for companies seeking to expand overseas in sectors ranging from beauty, food, fashion and lifestyle to hospitals, restaurants and pop-up stores,” Yoon said.

“The automated search and execution are based on data accumulated over the past three years of helping more than 100 brands run 930 campaigns and generate over 80,000 pieces of social media content. About a year ago, we began to realize that excessive amounts of time and manpower were being wasted on repetitive tasks such as searching for creators, managing campaigns and measuring content performance. We focused on automating all these tasks.”

Yoon said Indent M can be particularly helpful for small companies that lack the resources to conduct marketing campaigns on their own.

“Our AI engine will help even one-person companies achieve annual sales of 1 trillion won ($755 million). I believe companies using the tool can cut costs by up to 80 percent if they clearly define the roles of humans and AI,” he said.

“When I was at Samsung Electronics, we paid 43 billion won to outside service providers managing e-commerce platforms in 34 countries. If I were to perform the same job using Indent M, all I would need would be no more than 2 billion won.”

首尔Indent公司创始人兼首席执行官尹塞尔登（Seldon Yoon）周二表示，韩国品牌可以利用社交媒体内容创作者和人工智能技术，以低成本在海外推广产品。他以一些通过病毒式内容创作者营销而获得关注的韩妆品牌为例，指出社交平台已成为产品发现和购买的渠道。Indent公司正在开发Indent M，这是一款旨在自动化网红推广和全球市场营销活动任务的人工智能代理。

去年韩国化妆品出口额达到创纪录的114亿美元，高于前一年的102亿美元，其中美国占比最大。

Yoon 将病毒式营销描述为雇用当地创作者来介绍产品，然后在社交媒体上寻找和传播类似的现有视频。

Yoon表示，Indent的数据来源于三年内帮助100多个品牌开展930场营销活动，并生成超过80000条社交媒体内容。

Indent M 联系了 72 个国家的全球影响者，其目标行业包括美容、食品、时尚、生活方式、医院、餐厅和快闪店。

尹锡悦表示，如果企业能够明确界定人类和人工智能的角色，使用该工具最多可以节省80%的成本。他对比了使用Indent M预计的20亿韩元成本和三星电子在34个国家/地区支付给外部供应商的430亿韩元电商平台管理费用。

发布于2026年10月27日下午4:16（韩国标准时间）

Indent CEO 开发用于全球营销的智能体人工智能

周二，在首尔举行的新闻发布会上，Indent 创始人兼首席执行官 Seldon Yoon 介绍了 Indent M，这是一款智能人工智能工具，可为寻求全球扩张的公司执行营销任务。图片由 Indent 提供。

周二，首尔一位人工智能专家表示，社交媒体平台已成为韩国美妆、食品和时尚品牌的重要市场，企业可以利用人工智能 (AI) 以最低的成本使其产品在全球市场迅速走红。

总部位于首尔的电商人工智能转型（AX）解决方案开发商Indent的创始人兼首席执行官Seldon Yoon表示，Instagram和TikTok上的Reels短视频和短视频内容已成为韩国消费者发现和购买新产品的主要渠道。他还补充说，创作者内容营销比以往任何时候都更加重要，尤其对于那些希望在海外推广产品并吸引本地消费者的公司而言更是如此。

曾任三星电子全球电子商务顾问的尹先生指出，自2024年以来韩国美妆产品出口额的显著增长，证明了其海外营销的成功。据韩国食品药品安全部统计，去年韩国化妆品出口额达到创纪录的114亿美元，高于前一年的102亿美元，其中美国市场占据最大份额。

Yoon表示：“所有出口到美国的韩国美妆品牌，无一例外，都利用本土创作者的内容在社交媒体平台上吸引病毒式传播，从而刺激需求。他们的产品在亚马逊Prime Day期间迅速走红，并在亚马逊各类商品中名列前茅。在证明了自身的受欢迎程度之后，这些产品又被拥有线下分销渠道的本土商家所青睐。”

左图为 Chailee Son，右图为 Sunny Dahye，她们都是居住在美国的美容内容创作者，在 Instagram 上各自拥有超过 100 万粉丝。图片来自 Instagram。

Yoon表示，APR是韩国一家特别有效地利用社交媒体的美妆公司。

Yoon表示：“APR从一开始就将‘病毒式营销’作为推广其美容产品的策略，并称其为四种网红营销策略中最有效的一种。”该策略包括聘请当地内容创作者介绍目标产品，然后寻找其他内容类似的现有网络视频，并将其进一步传播到其他社交媒体平台。

他还补充道：“COSRX的蜗牛霜也是通过病毒式营销迅速走红的。当其营销活动在全球范围内获得约6万次点击量后，便开始吸引观众参与蜗牛霜挑战。自2019年起由模特韩惠珍代言的D'Alba Global，以及旗下拥有全球防晒爆款品牌Beauty of Joseon的Goodai Global，也都是通过社交媒体的病毒式传播获得点击量，之后销量飙升。Anua在美国TikTok上的病毒式营销也取得了成功，三年前销量开始增长。”

Yoon表示，以领先的韩国美妆品牌为例，创作者内容营销代表了第四代商业模式，在这种模式下，消费者的兴趣可以直接转化为购买行为。它分别继承了第一代网站电商、第二代移动电商和第三代媒体电商（品牌在社交媒体平台上投放在线广告）的模式。

尹先生表示，Indent公司已经开始开发其所谓的4.5代“AI商务”，该技术使AI能够自动处理全球市场的营销和重复性任务。该公司的工具是一款名为Indent M的AI代理。

2024年8月29日，越南美妆博主严黄艳英（Nghiem Hoang Diem Anh）在河内举办的韩国购物节快闪店中，展示了她使用韩国公司产品创作的美甲作品。（韩国时报摄影师：许京珠）

Yoon表示：“Indent M会自动联系72个国家的全球影响力人物，帮助那些希望拓展海外业务的公司，业务范围涵盖美容、食品、时尚、生活方式、医院、餐厅和快闪店等行业。”

“自动化搜索和执行基于过去三年积累的数据，这些数据帮助我们服务了超过100个品牌，开展了930场营销活动，并生成了超过8万条社交媒体内容。大约一年前，我们开始意识到，大量的时间和人力被浪费在重复性任务上，例如寻找创作者、管理营销活动和衡量内容表现。因此，我们专注于实现所有这些任务的自动化。”

Yoon表示，Indent M对于缺乏资源自行开展营销活动的小公司来说尤其有帮助。

“我们的人工智能引擎将帮助即使是只有一名员工的公司实现年销售额1万亿韩元（约合7.55亿美元）。我相信，如果使用该工具的公司能够明确界定人类和人工智能的角色，就能降低高达80%的成本。”他说道。

“我在三星电子工作时，我们向管理34个国家电子商务平台的外部服务提供商支付了430亿韩元。如果我用Indent M完成同样的工作，我只需要不超过20亿韩元。”