korea's rental business has seen a boost insales as a growing number of korean consumers lookfor value and experience, and the things people can rent is also diversifying,...from rental cars and clothes to furniture and appliances. kim hyesung reports. today is a special day for park ju-yang. two people take some measurements of her wall...in order to make space for a 35-hundred u.s. dollar painting. but she didn't buy it.
she rented it, for three percent of the painting'stotal cost -- or 130 dollars a month. "i love decorating my house with paintings,photos and flowers. but famous paintings are too expensive. using this service, i can rent the paintingfor a three-month period, which helps change the atmosphere of the house, and the deliveryservice is very convenient." with the service, users can choose a paintingor get recommendations from a curator and rent the artwork for three months. given its convenient door-to-door deliveryservice and relatively low cost, the company, founded in 2014, saw its sales jump more than300-percent on-year, and currently retains
more than 95-percent of its users, which compriseboth businesses and private citizens. the growing rental trend in korea is not justlimited to home decor, it's expanded to include everything from cars and water filters...to furniture and clothing. according to the kt economy and research lab,the rental business in korea has grown over 30-percent in the last five years, and isexpected to reach 22 billion dollars this year, with businesses that rent personal andhousehold goods seeing a 50-percent jump. "the rental business has seen rapid growthin recent years, as our society shifts from a somewhat materialistic society that seesproducts as status symbols... to one that emphasizes value, experience and reasonableconsumption."
"as a growing number of people use rentalservices, businesses are coming up with special services to suit people's needs -- like thismattress." this furniture shop uses a special diagnosticsystem to determine the level of support a user needs in a mattress -- whether soft,medium or hard. new mattresses are priced at around two-thousandu.s. dollars, but customers who sign four-year contracts can rent one for less than 40 dollarsa month. "our company uses a new business model. we rent mattresses at a reasonable cost. on top of that, we provide monthly cleaningservices to help remove ticks and we change
the mattress topper, so users can sleep comfortablyon a clean bed." the company is planning to build on its earlysuccess and open more branches in the near future. and given recent trends, companies like itare expected to become more common in the near future. experts say ownership is rapidly becominga thing of the past, and they predict the korean rental market will grow to 34 billiondollars by 2020. "in the next five years, it devices that incorporatevirtual reality and augmented reality will become part of the rental business, becausemore people will want to use tech savvy products,
which change rapidly, at reasonable prices. and new business models that combine big dataand artificial intelligence with rental services that users want are likely to become popular,and some are already popping up in the u.s. and japan." changes in societal values, consumer needs,a slowing economy; there are too many reasons to pinpoint as the main factor driving therental business. but one thing is for sure. the market, with its enormous opportunities,is expected to grow even further. kim hyesung, arirang news.
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