Korea's Colour Contact Lens Boom: What to Check
Hapa Kristin's operator posted 58.8 billion won and a first profit after three losing years β Japan up 45%, the US up 81%. How stage eyes became a market.
Freeze a K-pop stage video on a close-up and something registers before the lip colour or the eyeshadow does: the eyes. Under stage lighting the iris has a sharp outer ring and sits a tone brighter than it should.
Enough people wanted to know why that accounts dedicated to identifying the exact colour lenses idols wear became a fixture of Korean fandom. There are accounts that track stage outfits; there are separate accounts that track eyes. And that attention shows up in company filings.
At a glance
| Item | Number | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Hapa Kristin operator revenue | 58.8 billion won (+20.3%) | 2025 |
| Same company, operating profit | 5.4 billion won β first profit | 2025 (prior year: β4.2 billion) |
| Japan revenue | 16.4 billion won (+45%) | 2025 |
| US revenue | 7.4 billion won (+81%) | 2025 |
| O-Lens operator revenue | 194.1 billion won (+26%) | 2025 |
| Same company, operating profit | 65.4 billion won (+21%) | 2025 (margin about 34%) |
| Korean contact lens market | US$362 million (about 533.5 billion won) | recent year |
| Contact lens exports | US$212.26 million | 2024 (+19% vs 2020) |
Two companies sit side by side in that table and they are opposites. One runs an operating margin near 34%; the other only turned its first profit in 2025. Why the same product produces two accounts this different is half of what follows.
What a Korean colour lens actually is
What Korea sells splits into two things, and the distinction matters when you buy.
- Circle lenses β a darker printed ring around the outside of the iris that makes the eye read as larger. These change size, not colour
- Colour (tinted) lenses β pigment across the iris itself, moving a brown eye to grey, olive or hazel
Both come in plano versions with no vision correction. People with perfect eyesight wear them purely cosmetically, and that is the fact that turned this into a beauty market rather than an optical one. Products are introduced by shade name, new releases arrive like seasonal colours, and brands sign idols. Hapa Kristin's face is IVE's Jang Won-young.
The two companies, by the numbers
Three companies define this market.
| Company (brand) | Revenue | Operating profit | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarVision (O-Lens) | 194.1 billion won (2025) | 65.4 billion won | About 330 stores; roughly 30% of Korea's contact lens market and about 50% of colour lenses |
| PPB Studios (Hapa Kristin) | 58.8 billion won (2025) | 5.4 billion won | Growth is overseas-led. Japan +45%, US +81% |
| Interojo | 115.8 billion won (2024) | β | 86.3% of revenue from overseas; B2B and OEM focused |
O-Lens's operator runs an operating margin close to one third. That is unusual in retail, and it points less to unusually low input costs than to a structure where the brand and the shade name themselves carry the price. By 2025 the company was valuable enough that Europe's largest private equity firm moved to acquire it.
Three years of losses, then a flip
Hapa Kristin's numbers need reading differently. That company spent years in the red.
| Year | Revenue | Operating result |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 28.7 billion won | β3.4 billion won |
| 2024 | 49.0 billion won (+24.5%) | β4.2 billion won |
| 2025 | 58.8 billion won (+20.3%) | +5.4 billion won |
Revenue nearly doubled while losses got worse, and then the sign flipped in a single year. That is the classic shape of spending on marketing and overseas entry first and collecting later. Looking at brand revenue alone, Hapa Kristin grew from 5.7 billion won in 2020 to 28.7 billion in 2023 β a compound rate of about 74% a year.
In 2026 the company signed a deal to be sold to a private equity fund. Three years of losses, one profitable year, immediate sale: colour lenses are now being priced as an asset, not a preference.
The growth is not domestic
But the most important number in this market is not the Korean one.
Hapa Kristin's overseas revenue went from 1.7 billion won in 2020 to 25.1 billion in 2023 β 4.4x in three years. In 2025 Japan grew 45% and the US grew 81%, two to four times the domestic growth rate of 20.3%.
The industry-wide figures agree. Korean contact lens exports reached US$212.26 million in 2024, up 19% from 2020, and Korea climbed to 11th among suppliers of contact lenses into the United States as of 2023.
It is not an exaggeration to summarise it as Korea exporting eye colour. The stage is the billboard and the fan account is the first step of the distribution chain.
But this is not a cosmetic
On the shelf it looks like makeup. It is not. A contact lens sits directly on the eye, and in Korea it is regulated as a medical device β including plano cosmetic versions with no prescription. That places real limits on how it can be sold and advertised. Where a visitor actually meets these lenses is the chain now taking a quarter of its money from tourists.
Rules change over time, so confirm the current position at the point of purchase. But the direction is not ambiguous: do not treat this the way you treat a lipstick.
Four things genuinely matter.
- Diameter and base curve have to match your eye. A beautiful shade in the wrong size abrades the cornea
- Oxygen permeability and wear time. The pigment layer can make colour lenses more demanding than a clear lens of the same material
- Daily and monthly lenses are managed completely differently. Stretching a daily to two days is not thrift, it is added risk
- Never share a lens. Eye infections are difficult to reverse
What this means where you are
| Situation | What to actually do |
|---|---|
| You got a product name from a fan account | Do not buy that exact shade. Stage lenses are chosen for strong lighting and a camera, and the same product under indoor lighting reads far more obviously. Start one shade lighter |
| Buying in Korea | Go through an optical shop. Get fitted and learn your own diameter and base curve numbers β that one measurement stays useful every time you buy anywhere else |
| Buying at home | Check whether there is an official import channel first. Hapa Kristin and O-Lens are formally distributed in a number of markets, and that route is usually cheaper than parallel importing and actually accepts returns |
| Ordering from overseas | Lenses ship in solution, so temperature and expiry handling matter. Do not use any lens whose individual blister is damaged |
| Local regulation | Classification differs by country. Some markets sell plano cosmetic lenses as general goods; others regulate them as medical devices with prescription-only sale. Check before ordering rather than after |
| While travelling | Bring glasses. Long flights and dry indoor air are the worst combination for lenses. The rule is to remove them the moment your eyes are uncomfortable β and if there is nothing to change into, you will keep them in anyway |
58.8 billion or 194.1 billion β those numbers belong to the companies. The condition that applies to you is much simpler: you get one pair of eyes and they are not replaceable.
Read next
- Daiso went from 7 beauty brands to 160 β the price side of the same shelf
- Why every brand in an airport photo is already labelled β how a worn item becomes a product off-stage
- Where foreign visitors spend money in Myeongdong has changed β where appearance spending is moving
Sources
- Greened β K-beauty and K-pop drive a colour lens boom (Korean)
- The Stock β PPB Studios' rapid growth behind the 'Jang Won-young lens' (Korean)
- Bloter β K-lens: performance plus beauty shakes the global contact lens market (Korean)
- Hankyung β Europe's largest PEF moves to acquire Korea's top contact lens firm (Korean)