Korea's mobile shopping hits all-time high in May

Purchases made through mobile gadgets like smartphones reached a new all-time high in May as a growing number of people are becoming adept in using wireless devices for various reasons, government data showed Wednesday.

Mobile transactions through smartphones and tablets reached 3.82 trillion won ($3.3 billion) in May, soaring 37.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by Statistics Korea.

It eclipsed the earlier record of 3.74 trillion won in monthly mobile trading set in March.

The total amount of transactions was equal to the record 60.7 percent of all online purchases made in the cited month that reached 6.3 trillion won.

Mobile purchases in South Korea have been on a steep rise for years as people are increasingly making greater use of their smart devices.

Mobile bookings for travel and movie tickets rose 15.2 percent in May from a year earlier to 505.4 billion won, while sales and deliveries of foodstuffs shot up 60.6 percent on-year to 561.7 billion won.

Sales of clothes surged 38.7 percent on-year to 450.6 billion won, while 323 billion won worth of cosmetics were sold through smartphones, up 26.7 percent from a year ago. (Yonhap)