₩2.8 trillion in sales lost money; ₩2 trillion made it — mapping Korea's fashion apps
Koreans buy clothes in apps. Line up the 2025 results, though, and the order breaks: Ably moved 40% more merchandise than Zigzag and posted an operating loss, while Zigzag turned a profit for the second year running. What each app actually sells, and whether you can use it from abroad.
If you have ever paused a Korean drama or an idol photo to search for the clothes, you have probably wondered where Koreans actually buy them. Not department stores, not Dongdaemun. Mostly apps.
There is more than one app, though, and lining up the 2025 results breaks the order you would expect.
The platform with more merchandise sold is the one losing money.
At a glance
| Platform | 2025 revenue | Operating profit | Merchandise value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Musinsa | ₩1.47tn (+18.1%) | +₩140.5bn (+36.7%) | ₩5tn (+15%) |
| KREAM (Naver) | ₩397.5bn (combined) | — | resale brokerage |
| Ably | ₩369.7bn (+10.6%) | −₩4.3bn | ₩2.8tn (+12%) |
| Zigzag (Kakao Style) | ₩219.2bn (+10%) | +₩5.8bn (2nd year) | passed ₩2tn |
| W Concept | ₩119.4bn | −₩3.1bn | — |
The two rows to look at are near the bottom. Ably moved 40% more merchandise than Zigzag and posted an operating loss; Zigzag was profitable. The ranking by merchandise value and the ranking by profit do not match — that mismatch is what this table is actually about.
The answer to "where did you get that?" is usually an app name
Start with the shape of the market. Fashion buying in Korea ends inside the app rather than in a search engine. The path is not finding a brand's website; it is opening an app and reading the rankings inside it.
Which makes a trending item in Korea nearly synonymous with an item that climbed one app's ranking. A brand breaking out means it reached the top of a category there, and a brand outside the ranking exists without being visible.
What each app sells differs too. Musinsa started in men's street and casual wear and now runs closer to a general platform — a good share of the domestic brands in idol airport photos sit inside it. Ably and Zigzag both began in women's casual. W Concept leans toward women's designer labels. KREAM was originally a limited-edition sneaker resale platform.
But the bigger seller is not the one making money
But return to the mismatch in that table and it turns out not to be a question of scale.
The reasons attached to the profitable side are specific. Musinsa's is offline retail: store visits passed 32 million a year, and exports rose more than tenfold to ₩48.9bn. It is no longer a company standing on one app.
Zigzag's is AI-driven personalisation lifting buyer numbers, plus diversifying into beauty and branded fashion. Its merchandise value is smaller than Ably's at ₩2tn, yet it booked ₩5.8bn in operating profit — profitable two years running. One thing worth pinning down before going further: the last two columns of that table measure different things. Merchandise value is everything transacted through the platform; revenue is only the platform's own cut — commissions, advertising, its own-label sales. A platform can move enormous volume while keeping very little of it, which is exactly why the two rankings can disagree.
But for the loss-making side, the reports give no reason at all. Ably posted its largest revenue ever at ₩369.7bn and narrowed its loss by more than 70% to ₩4.3bn. W Concept ran ₩119.4bn in revenue against a ₩3.1bn loss. Why neither has crossed into profit cannot be read from public filings, and going further would be guesswork.
What is visible is the direction. Growing merchandise value and earning a profit are not the same task, and in this market right now the two have come apart.
One company chose not to put men and women in the same app
That the apps divide by gender is not an observation about users — it is a decision by the companies. The clearest evidence sits at Ably.
Ably is a women's casual app, and rather than adding menswear inside it, the company built a separate app called 4910. The result: merchandise value up 137%, monthly users doubling from 1.7 million to 3.4 million.
Numbers that would not have appeared inside one combined app.
The same company split across borders as well; its Japanese service, Amood, has passed 6.5 million downloads. Dividing by country and dividing by gender rest on one logic — in a market where rankings drive buying, whose ranking it is matters before what is on the shelf.
This shape — invisible in the average, visible once split — is close to the default in Korean consumer markets. Smartphone share flipping only among women in their twenties has the same outline.
Clothing apps are turning into beauty apps
The other movement in the table is by category.
Zigzag's beauty merchandise grew 50% and branded fashion more than 40%. An app that sold clothes is widening into one that sells cosmetics, and the line between "fashion app" and "beauty app" in Korea is already blurring.
KREAM shows the same story from the other side. Sneakers fell from 50% of its mix to 37%. Shoes did not shrink; everything else grew. Resale is moving out beyond footwear.
For a visitor this is practical. One app increasingly covers both clothes and cosmetics, and searching on the assumption that a given app "only sells clothes" will miss items that are actually there.
What this means where you are
| What to check | What to look at |
|---|---|
| Overseas shipping | Musinsa runs a global store. Supported countries and shipping costs vary by market |
| Identity verification | A screen demanding a Korean mobile number means that app is effectively closed to visitors |
| Sizing | Women's wear still carries 44 / 55 / 66 labels. Even S/M/L measures differently |
| Trying it on | Musinsa's offline stores draw 32 million visits a year — save items, try them in Seoul |
| Tax | Ask in store whether tax refund applies |
The row that trips people most often is the second. It varies by app and you only find out by tapping through, so checking the list of shippable countries before registering is the right order.
Sizing is the biggest risk in any overseas purchase you cannot easily return. The surest method is to read the measurement table (length, shoulder, chest) on the product page and measure a garment you already own with a tape. Numbers are more reliable than whatever size name the brand printed.
If a trip to Korea is on the calendar, there is a way to reverse the order: use the apps to search and buy in person. Sizing failures disappear and the refund is there to claim.
Which leaves a question. In a market where rankings make the trends, what are overseas buyers — who never see those rankings — choosing on?
Read next
- Eight in ten Koreans carry a Galaxy — another market that only makes sense once you split it
- 2,130 pop-up stores opened in half a year — where clothes and cosmetics sell outside the apps
- Why Korea asks for a phone number before an app will work — what the second row of that table really is
Sources
- Fashionbiz, "Who did well among fashion platforms last year — Ably and Zigzag's growth formulas diverged" — https://fashionbiz.co.kr/article/225387
- Newdaily Biz, "Despite the downturn and C-commerce, Musinsa, Ably and Zigzag posted record revenue" — https://biz.newdaily.co.kr/site/data/html/2025/02/17/2025021700092.html
- Korea Textile News, "Mixed results: Musinsa and Zigzag in profit, Ably in loss" — http://www.ktnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=145482
- Musinsa Newsroom, "2025 operating profit up 37% to ₩140.5bn" (31 Mar 2026) — https://newsroom.musinsa.com/newsroom-menu/2026-0331
- Korea Textile News, "Olive Young in beauty, Ably and Musinsa in fashion — profitability varies" — https://www.ktnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=145447