Video-sharing platform YouTube is reportedly planning to open its first official shopping channel for live commerce in South Korea.

Yonhap News Agency (YNA) reported that the channel is scheduled to launch on 30 June as a 90-day project and will operate in the Korean language.

Initially, the channel will provide companies with a live-commerce platform and live stream shopping content from 30 brands.

YouTube, which is owned by search engine Google, unveiled a new shopping tab in its Explore section. It was introduced to allow eligible creators to add products to their livestreams or list products under their videos for viewers to purchase.

The news agency quoted a YouTube official as saying: "YouTube is committed to building an engaging, informative and entertaining shopping experience for all users, including in Korea. To do this, we may experiment with a variety of YouTube Shopping features from time to time as we continue to work hard to optimize and deliver the best experience for our users."

It follows after Alphabet chief business officer Philipp Schindler said during the fourth quarter 2022 earnings call that it is focused on fostering more creators on the platform and making YouTube ‘more shoppable’. Alphabet is the parent company of Google and YouTube.

In December 2021, social media platform TikTok also marked its entry into e-commerce with its first live shopping event in the UK.