Last year’s most popular trends related to pets in Korea were training, buying them luxury items and showing off their photos online, according to a local marketing firm on Sunday.

Innocean Worldwide released a report on new perception and consumer trends of pets based on the analysis of 4.1 million pieces of social data related to pets via portals, blogs, online cafes and communities throughout last year. 



Training pets was one of the popular trends among pet owners. Social perception toward pet etiquette has increased due to the increase in accidents involving pets, the report said. The most searched keywords related to training pets were animal protection law, training, education, specialists and safety.

Luxury items for pets were also a new phenomenon. Specialized products and services targeting pets as well as pet-friendly hotels and restaurants have increased in recent years. The most searched keywords related to pet’s luxury items were cafe, beauty treatment, hotel and hand-made snack.

Another pet trend last year was posting pet photos online to express the owners’ affection for their pets. Instagram was used as the most popular channel to show off the photos of pets last year, the report said.

“The local pet market is expected to double from 2.9 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in 2017 to 5.8 trillion won in 2020, with the growth of pet-related economy emerging across products and services,” said Lee Soo-jin, chief of digital command center of Innocean Worldwide.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)





Shin Ji-hye기자@heraldcorp.com