Carrot Market

Hajon Lee

Have you seen the poster or commercial in a bus station or even on the side of the bus with a rabbit holding up a carrot with a orange background?

This is the trending so-called carrot market in Korea. The name is actually a play with words. It actually means a market close to you which was minimized to rabbit market from: 당신의 당근마켓은 당신 근처 마켓 (for those of you who are learning Korean). Carrot Market is a community app that deals in used goods face-to-face based on the neighborhood where I live. Five years after launching the service, the cumulative number of app downloads exceeded 20 million. It is surprising that there are also 10 million people who visit carrot markets every month. Previously, we’ve already had similar apps like this, but then how could such an app become top of the industry in just a few months? There are various factors that have contributed to their success.The biggest reason why carrot markets are on track for success is that they are convenient to access. Until now, secondhand transactions have been based on the portal’s cafe or community. Furthermore, individual access was difficult because vendors monopolized the upper exposure rather than individuals. In contrast to that carrot markets are all individuals that choose a face-to-face method of trading goods. Also by using AI machine learning, the developers filter out mobile phone numbers or accounts with criminal experience, and create indicators that allow customers to trade with more confidence through trading temperature manner. Personally, I’ve already sold three things in the app, but a difficulty I faced was that you can only trade items in your own area. Carrot markets have set a trading radius of less than 6 kilometers. The reason was said to be because it hopes that “our neighborhood business” will be firmly established around residential areas. However, the specialty and fun fact about this app is that it’s not only a market but a community itself in an app. You can find people to eat dinner with or even learn how to ride a bicycle or just ask a question about where’s a place to get a nice haircut. The app is very friendly to use and it really is being activated based on the voluntary activities of users. Hope you give it a try if you have anything to sell or want to buy.