Beijing, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A local auction house in South Korea said on the 7th that about 40% of the investors in South Korea who bought a small number of shares in iconic art through online platforms were young people.
On April 2, 2019, in Seoul, South Korea, a visitor enjoys an oil painting called "Hug" at the exhibition site. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Wang Jingyan)
Yonhap News Agency reported that Yonhap news agency sotwo, a South Korean online art investment auction platform, reported that 40% of customers who "invested" in a single piece of art at a price of not less than 10 million won (about 51,000 yuan) were young people in their twenties and thirties.
Sotwo allows individuals to buy shares in a particular artwork for a price starting at 1,000 won (5.1 yuan), earning when the artwork is resold. According to the company, its young buyers have invested in paintings by some of The best Korean artists, for example, 50 percent of investors in their twenties and thirties participate in the collective purchase of a Korean artist's work; buyers in their 30s make up 43 percent of all investors.
A visitor visits an exhibition in Seoul, South Korea, on April 2, 2019. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Wang Jingyan)
Not only Sotwo, but also local Korean auction houses such as Seoul Auction House and K Auction House have also ventured into the new platform business.
Sotwo said it's becoming a new trend for young people to be interested in diversifying their portfolios and investing in areas that previously only the wealthy could have dabbled in. (Qiao Ying)