Poshmark describes new life as part of Naver

Tech

Published: 15 Jan. 2023, 15:00

Poshmark describes new life as part of Naver

Manish Chandra, Poshmark CEO, speaks at a press conference held in San Francisco on Thursday. [NAVER]

Poshmark is tapping Naver’s technologies to introduce new features, after its new parent company completed its $1.6 billion acquisition.

Poshmark, a major secondhand fashion commerce platform in the North American market, held a live-streamed press conference Friday in San Francisco to discuss business plans after becoming part of Naver.

Poshmark CEO Manish Chandra highlighted how the link with Naver would help it “create new opportunities.”

“Think of Naver’s expertise, technology and market leadership,” said Chandra. “What it allows us to do is to accelerate growth domestically and scale internationally.”

Manish Chandra, Poshmark CEO, during a press conference held in San Francisco on Friday, which was live-streamed online [SCREEN CAPTURE]

During the press conference, Poshmark introduced a test version of a new shopping feature called Posh Lens, powered by Naver’s Smart Lens technology.

When a user takes a picture of an object using Posh Lens, they will receive a list of similar products available on Poshmark’s online marketplace.

Poshmark plans to incorporate Naver’s live commerce technology into its Posh Show live-streaming feature as well.

Chandra mentioned that while the macro environment is unfavorable with inflation troubling consumers, this may lead to opportunities as more people may seek secondhand goods to cut costs.

Founded in 2011, Poshmark is a Redwood City, California-based social marketplace with 80 million users and an annual gross merchandise volume of $1.8 billion as of 2021.

On Oct. 4, Naver announced that it was buying the U.S. company for $1.6 billion.

This was Naver's single biggest investment ever and the biggest acquisition ever by a Korean IT company.

Chandra emphasized that Naver and Poshmark “are built on complementary and shared business models around technology and community,” and also share “a similar set of values and vision.”

Earnings from Poshmark will be incorporated into Naver’s performance starting in the first quarter this year.

Naver is seeking global expansion with a focus on e-commerce and content.

The company reportedly invested an additional 75 million euros ($81.2 million) in Wallapop, a secondhand marketplace based in Barcelona, Spain, according to media outlets Thursday. Naver invested 115 million euros for a 10 percent stake in the Spanish company in 2021.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]