More women plan to give gifts to friends, family on Feb. 14

It turns out that more Koreans are ditching the idea of spending Valentine’s Day with that one special person and are expanding the celebration to include friends and family, according to a survey by online shopping mall Auction.

In the survey released Wednesday, 51 percent of the 1,062 women Auction asked said they have plans to give gifts on Feb. 14.

Out of the women who gave an affirmative response, nearly 75 percent said they were planning to give out chocolate on Valentine’s Day.

But it’s not all about buying a gift for a person the women are interested in. Among those who are planning to give a present, 23.1 percent said they would distribute chocolate to colleagues at work.

There were distinct differences between the choices of married and single women. Out of those who are married, 53.4 percent said they are planning to give out chocolate to family while 14.8 percent said their gifts were going to people at work. On the other hand the distribution between family and work colleagues was nearly equal at 29 percent and 27 percent.

Additionally, 38.3 percent said they were giving chocolate to husbands and boyfriends while 21.1 percent said they were giving treats to people they have an interest in but are not in a relationship with.

But the latter will be buying more expensive chocolate than the products that will be given to boyfriends or husbands, the survey showed.