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On a day in 2025, American superstar Cardi B could not hide her admiration while tasting Korean spicy seaweed on her social media broadcast. She live-streamed the process of purchasing and tasting the spicy seaweed to millions of her followers, and the product sold out in a short time. Interestingly, this spicy seaweed is a product of a new brand, not a giant food company.

The spicy seaweed is a private brand (PB) created to further enhance the performance of the global marketing platform 'Cosduck' built by Mayakrew. Cosduck provides data-driven precise targeting, automated creator collaboration, and market trend analysis to enhance corporate marketing performance. Cardi B's choice was not by chance.



Although live video platforms are emerging as the center of consumption, many domestic brands struggle with how to ride this massive wave. In response, Mayakrew positions Cosduck as the 'global navigator' for domestic brands. How does Mayakrew assist domestic brands in global marketing with Cosduck? A conversation was held with Junho Oh, CEO of Mayakrew.

Finding a Path for K-Beauty's Entry into the U.S. through 'TikTok Affiliate'

The U.S. market is considered attractive yet challenging for K-consumer goods companies. The vast market size makes performance prediction difficult, and marketing competition is fierce. Currently, the platform leading consumer trends in the U.S. is TikTok. CEO Junho Oh emphasizes, "In terms of marketing platforms within the U.S., it's essentially just TikTok," highlighting TikTok's immense influence.

In the U.S., TikTok is not just an ordinary social media platform. The 'TikTok Shop,' equipped with e-commerce functions like Amazon or Coupang, is active within the platform. 'Affiliate Marketing,' where creators include TikTok Shop links for specific products in their videos and earn commissions when products are sold, is thriving. Creators actively promote sponsored products as their activities directly translate into revenue.

The problem is that the affiliate marketing process requires a lot of manual work. Brand marketers have to scroll endlessly and send hundreds of emails and messages to find potential creators. After finding influencers, they must sign contracts and compile performance results. Brand marketers have no choice but to use various analytical tools to create reports.



CEO Junho Oh identified this inefficiency as the industry's biggest pain point and developed Cosduck. Cosduck automates most processes from discovering local influencers to collaboration. Companies entering the U.S. market can conduct marketing activities with minimal resources.

Cosduck has secured a pool of 14,000 TikTok creators in the U.S. Companies can create suitable campaigns with just a few clicks. When creators apply for campaigns, the system automatically manages product shipping information and encourages activities with push notifications as content upload deadlines approach. Marketers can devote their time and resources entirely to strategy development and performance analysis.

Performance tracking is a differentiating feature of Cosduck. TikTok's own analytical tools are fragmented, and the abundance of data makes intuitive performance understanding difficult. However, Cosduck integrates all performance data into a single dashboard. It organizes key performance indicators (KPIs) such as which creator generated how much sales, which product sold the most, and the return on ad spend (ROAS) of the entire campaign. The integrated dashboard supports marketers in making data-driven decisions.

Beyond work automation, Mayakrew has enhanced the qualitative level of marketing by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology. A representative feature is the generative AI-based content guide. When marketers input video materials of successful brands into Cosduck, AI analyzes the videos in detail. It then provides a guide with specific suggestions on how to create videos that capture viewers' attention. The guide includes information akin to a small script, such as how to construct the first 3-second hook that captures viewers' attention, segment-specific directing methods that highlight the product's appeal, and call-to-action phrases that increase conversion rates.

Cosduck is equipped with an 'AI Customer Service (CS) Agent' feature. When consumer inquiries come through TikTok Shop, the AI chatbot responds immediately. Utilizing the AI customer service agent reduces the burden of repetitive CS tasks. It also has an intelligent system that forwards complex inquiries, difficult for AI to answer, to human consultants.

Mayakrew Proves Cosduck's Competence Directly

Mayakrew has established a unique strategy by creating its own brand to test and prove performance directly on the Cosduck platform. First, it built a K-beauty brand to conduct performance tests within the Cosduck platform, and recently launched a spicy seaweed brand to measure performance in the K-food sector. The spicy seaweed brand was mentioned by American superstar Cardi B just a month after its launch, proving Cosduck's performance. CEO Junho Oh stated, "The spicy seaweed brand achieved a high return on ad spend, demonstrating its effectiveness. This is not about persuading with Cosduck's efficacy, but proving through actual use that such results are achieved."

Mayakrew's growth does not rely solely on excellent technology. CEO Junho Oh emphasized, "To grow in the global market, there must be many global talents," identifying people as the core driving force of growth. Mayakrew focuses on embedding a 'global DNA' within the organization to understand cultural contexts and emotional differences, which technology cannot solve, and communicate with local creators and consumers.

The Mayakrew staff, centered around Marketing Strategy Team Leader Sooyoung Park and Cosduck Team Leader Hyun Lim, who has nine years of experience living in the Middle East, symbolically represents CEO Junho Oh's philosophy.

Team Leader Hyun Lim explained, "Global marketing is difficult to expand without understanding the culture of the respective country. All Cosduck team members have directly experienced local cultures through overseas living, allowing them to deeply empathize with local customers' voices and respond flexibly."



Team Leader Sooyoung Park stated, "Opportunities for domestic consumer goods companies to enter the global market have increased. However, as AI and machine learning-based automation systems become common, achieving performance in the field of performance marketing has become difficult. Ultimately, the success or failure of marketing depends on content utilization. To dominate the market, thorough learning and analysis of content and the market are necessary. In this regard, I believe the Mayakrew team has quick response and excellent adaptability."

The Cosduck team intuitively understands local humor codes, the latest memes, and communication methods that cannot be replaced by translators, and applies them to marketing strategies. From differences in word choice to the visual elements of content, the Cosduck team identifies details that determine the success of localization.

Connecting All Countries with TikTok Shops through Cosduck

The challenge identified by CEO Junho Oh is the unpredictable pace of change on the TikTok platform. The free seeding strategy, which was effective until the first half of 2024, rapidly lost efficiency as the market became saturated. While performance-based affiliate marketing is currently trending, today's strategy may become obsolete tomorrow. In a rapidly changing market, a static playbook soon means failure.

Mayakrew boldly invested in data to find breakthroughs in difficult situations. By focusing on collecting TikTok data, it quickly identifies and analyzes market trends. Although it incurs significant costs, it has become a core strategy for survival and growth. Mayakrew tracks the macro trends of the market in real-time by analyzing not only its campaigns but also the entire TikTok beauty and food ecosystem.



Mayakrew's confidence is proven by numbers. It has attracted over 40 leading brands in the K-beauty market, including Olive Young's private brand (PB) Colorgram, Round Lab, Skin1004, and Tocobo, as Cosduck clients. The upward trend in sales is also clear. Sales of KRW 2 billion in 2023 grew to KRW 4.2 billion in 2024, nearly doubling. It aims to achieve KRW 10 billion in 2025, striving to expand performance.

Mayakrew receives assistance from the AWS Jungle Program jointly organized by Seoul National University of Science and Technology and AWS. Through the program, it receives direct feedback on architecture from AWS headquarters and practical opportunities for attracting overseas investment and building partnerships. CEO Junho Oh stated, "I believe the AWS Jungle Program and the support from Seoul National University of Science and Technology have served as a valuable bridge for Mayakrew to advance onto the global stage."

Mayakrew's vision extends beyond the U.S. to the entire world. CEO Junho Oh's long-term vision is to make Mayakrew an indispensable one-stop solution that all K-consumer goods companies seeking global market entry turn to first. A concrete blueprint has also been prepared. Mayakrew plans to expand Cosduck services to all major markets where TikTok Shop is active by 2025. It is preparing to establish a corporation in Japan and will sequentially enter the European, UAE, Southeast Asian, and Mexican markets.

IT Donga Reporter Hyungseok Kang (redbk@itdonga.com)

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