Chinese home appliance manufactures such as Haier, Midea, and Xiaomi have begun retailing their products on South Korea’s largest online marketplace, Coupang, and offer after-sales service (AS) through the platform. Additionally, China’s Roborock led the domestic robot vacuum cleaner market last year with its product priced over 1.6 million won. Once perceived as “cheap” and budget-friendly, Chinese home appliances are now targeting the Korean market few years ago, Chinese electronics sold in Korea mainly consisted of small appliances like humidifiers and hair dryers, or low-cost imitations of premium products. Recently, however, premium items such as robot vacuum cleaners, high-end TVs, and refrigerators have emerged in the local market. The design and quality of these products are reported to be on par with Korean and Japanese counterparts, posing a significant threat to Korean companies’ premium offerings. A senior appliance company official noted that Chinese products are also aggressively entering the global premium market, utilizing a strategy similar to the approach South Korea once employed to catch up with Japanese appliance
