One evening in Seoul, having nothing better to do, I decided to go out on the town in Myeong-dong with my friend Ron Rezac, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. Back in the 1960s, Myeong-dong was a trendy spot for Korean youth, filled with bars, cafes and music venues. After a few hours and a few beers (maybe more than a few), I let it be known that I, strangely, wanted to cap off the evening with some tea. The two of us hightailed it to a nearby "dabang" cafe, walked up some stairs to get in and were met at the door by a man who told us the place was closed and we couldn't come in. "What do you mean we can't come in!" we protested. "We have our rights!" we demanded in our excellent Korean, no doubt causing him to nearly keel over from the fumes of our beer breath. Seemingly at a loss, he let us in, pointing to a table where he wanted us to sit. Once inside, we learned that the reason they didn't want to let us in was that a movie company had taken possession of the dabang for the night to shoot a feature film. They decided on the spot that the scene in the dabang would now include two drunk

Children awaiting adoption in Korea are losing precious time to form bonds with permanent families as lengthy reviews and unclear screening standards delay placements, the head of an adoptive families’ advocacy group said. In an interview with The Korea Times after a press conference Tuesday outside the Board of Audit and Inspection in central Seoul, Oh Chang-hwa, head of the National Adoptive Family Federation, called for faster adoption matching and transparent assessment standards. “Children are there and parents are there. But they cannot meet,” he said. His organizations and six other civic groups submitted a petition asking the state auditor to inspect the screening and matching procedures under the new adoption system, which took effect on July 19, 2025, shifting responsibility for adoption procedures from private agencies to the central and local governments. Their complaints center on administrative delays, allegedly inconsistent screening and excessive collection of sensitive family information. According to figures submitted to the National Assembly and cited by the fede

The 1980 Gwangju Uprising produced a great many memorable photos, not least of which was one of a young man with blonde hair helping carry a man on a stretcher through the streets. The identity of this foreigner remained a mystery for decades, but as U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) who were there began publishing their memoirs, his identity and role in the uprising gradually came into focus. The person in the photo was a PCV named Tim Warnberg, who had arrived in Korea in 1978 to work as a health volunteer at Gwangju Christian Hospital. Those who knew him before his arrival in Korea remember him as someone whose character and concern for others help explain his actions in 1980. Warnberg was from Brainerd, Minnesota, where his father was the town’s longest-serving sheriff. His mother was, as his sister Roxanne Wilson remembers, “devoted to caring for others” and creating “a home that was warm and inviting to neighbors, friends and persons in need.” As his closest childhood friend, Keevie Fairbanks, put it, “Tim was the best of both of his parents.” Robert Grotjohn, who at

It may come as a shock to many these days that the Peace Corps once had a mission in Korea. The U.S. volunteer agency sent more than 2,000 young volunteers to Korea between 1966 and 1981 in 51 waves, from K-1 to K-51. The country they arrived in was very different from the advanced nation Korea has grown to become. Coming out of the 1910-45 Japanese occupation and 1950-53 Korean War, Korea was for decades one of the poorest nations in the world. In the mid-1960s, when Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) began arriving, Korea's hills were barren, and the gutters were filled with human waste. The authoritarian government maintained a strict curfew, barring people from the streets from midnight to 4 a.m. “My first impression was ‘My god, what have I got myself into?’” Ed Klein (K-1) said in 2016. “It was the way it was,” David McCann (K-1) said in 2019, “and that didn't strike me as strange.” U.S. President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961 with an executive order. It was designed to serve three main goals: helping various countries meet their need for trained me

For many foreign residents, the first few weeks in Seoul can feel almost effortless. The subway works. Convenience stores are everywhere, and there is always another café, restaurant or corner of the city to discover. Then the paperwork begins. An appointment for a residence card. A landlord asking for a deposit that can run into the tens of millions of won. Almost overnight, the experience shifts from exploring Korea to deciphering it. For years, newcomers have leaned on Facebook groups for answers, and learned to sift through thousands of unverified listings and contradictory advice. Now they’re asking a blunter question, often on Reddit: Is this website legit? That was the question Huy Kim Nguyen, better known online as Kim Ninja, kept seeing about Enkostay, a rental platform for foreign residents. Nguyen came to Korea five years ago and began documenting the realities of living in Korea while working as a software developer. His YouTube videos explaining how Enkostay works went viral, drawing more than a million views. "You can't always trust the internet with a pretty website these

Political analysts expressed skepticism about President Lee Jae Myung’s new YouTube talk show, intended to strengthen communication with the public, saying it is unlikely to attract broader interest or win greater public support. The program, President’s Y, debuted Thursday evening as a prerecorded one-on-one interview. The show aimed to offer more room to explain Lee’s views than posts on X, excerpts in news reports or YouTube channels run by Cheong Wa Dae. Analysts said the first episode drew relatively few views despite the curiosity surrounding its debut, and that the key to better communication and higher approval ratings is not the platform or format, but rather more measured language. “Considering the curiosity that comes with a launch, it is difficult to call that particularly high,” a political pundit said on condition of anonymity, referring to the episode’s roughly 300,000 views in the 12 hours after its 9 p.m. release on Thursday. The count remained in the 350,000 range as of 3:30 p.m. Friday. “It does not appear to have been especially successful in attracting a

Behind the unexpected resurgence of Captain Q, which returned to the liquor market after an 11-year hiatus, was one man's four-year mission to reinvent the brand. His goal was to make the inexpensive rum-based spirit — once notorious for hangovers so severe that drinkers joked it took two days to recover — appealing to younger consumers without the baggage of its past. Priced at less than 10,000 won ($7.20), Captain Q has returned to public notice with a viral advertising campaign featuring comedian Lee Sun-min that paid homage to 1980s commercials. The limited-edition release of 12,000 sets sold out completely within a day of shipment. Even the Scottish supplier of the rum base was reportedly surprised, remarking, "Korea is such a dynamic market." Kim Dong-jun, a spirits manager on Lotte Chilsung Beverage's soju and spirits brand management team, had been preparing for Captain Q's revival since 2022. He can finally breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that four years of work had not gone to waste. At the company's headquarters in Songpa District in Seoul on Tuesday, Kim looked as flu

"Come in, try it out and leave us some feedback." At a pop-up store in Ikseon-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, on Oct. 30, prototypes showcasing the ideas of 19 young startup teams caught visitors' attention. Each team had set up an interactive space to present its products and services, ranging from Korean-style pork cutlets served with green onion kimchi and soybean paste stew to lightweight hiking and camping backpacks made with functional fabrics, artificial intelligence-powered fortune-telling services and art studios. Visitors tried out the offerings, listened to explanations from the entrepreneurs and suggested areas for improvement. About 850 people visited the event that day. The pop-up store served as a real-world testing ground for a Seoul Metropolitan Government initiative linking youth entrepreneurship with the revitalization of neighborhood commercial districts. A total of 150 teams applied for the fifth edition of the Local Entrepreneur Development Program, known as "Local in Seoul," this year, with 24 ultimately selected. Since June, the teams have been preparing to launch

A review committee of the state arms agency on Friday passed the basic plan for South Korea's nuclear-powered submarine program, officials said, moving forward with efforts to build the core naval asset under an agreement with the United States. The decision-making body under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) approved the plan for the Jang Bogo N project during a regular meeting earlier in the day, DAPA said in a release. The project will formally be launched in 2027. Seoul unveiled the Jang Bogo N project in May, aiming to domestically develop and build nuclear-propelled, conventionally armed attack submarines, with the first vessel to be launched in the mid-2030s and fielded after the late 2030s. The project has been exempted from a preliminary feasibility study usually required for arms acquisitions, allowing the government to accelerate its push for the construction. Under procurement regulations, the defense minister or DAPA chief can request an exemption from the feasibility study for highly classified projects. The exemption for the Jang Bogo N program was grant

A court on Friday temporarily suspended a 201.1 billion-won ($147.74 million) fine imposed on e-commerce giant Coupang Corp. over unauthorized collection of user data, officials said. Coupang had earlier filed a lawsuit seeking to cancel the penalty surcharges levied by the Personal Information Protection Commission for collecting the online activity records of about 11.17 million users and storing them in its database without consent. At the same time, Coupang also filed for an injunction against the fine. The Seoul Administrative Court granted Coupang's injunction request Friday and suspended the execution of the fine until 30 days after the first verdict in the main lawsuit seeking the cancellation of the surcharges is made, citing concern the penalty could cause irrecoverable damage to the company. Separately, the commission had fined Coupang 423.6 billion won over a data breach affecting more than 37 million users — the largest fine ever handed down by the privacy regulator to a single firm. Coupang filed an injunction request to suspend the fine, but a different panel of the court

President Lee Jae Myung nominated Defense Acquisition Program Administration chief Lee Yong-cheol as justice minister, Cheong Wa Dae said, Friday, after the post has remained vacant for more than two months. Lee, who heads Korea’s arms procurement agency, is a lawyer formerly affiliated with Lawyers for a Democratic Society, known as Minbyun, and has worked to protect human rights and promote democratic values, the presidential office said. He served as a presidential secretary for civil affairs and legal affairs during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, helping lead reforms of anti-corruption systems. Cheong Wa Dae cited Lee's legal background as well as his administrative experience in areas including structural reform as key qualifications for the justice minister post. “We expect him to swiftly establish the new criminal justice system and deliver fair justice administration so that no one is left behind or suffers injustice,” the office said. The president also nominated Seoul Regional Tax Office chief Ahn Duk-su as National Tax Service commissioner. The post has remained vacant s

President Lee Jae Myung on Friday pledged efforts to restore the honor of civilians killed in state violence around the 1950-53 Korean War, saying it is the state's duty to redress past wrongs. Lee made the pledge in his message to this year's joint memorial service for civilian victims of state violence before, during and after the Korean War, held at Seoul City Hall. The message was read by Lee's secretary for social cohesion Jeon Seong-hwan. In the early stage of the war in 1950, U.S. troops opened fire on approaching South Korean refugees at Nogeun-ri, a village in North Chungcheong Province, believing that North Korean soldiers were hiding among them. The incident reportedly left hundreds of innocent civilians dead. After the revelation about the incident, South Korea launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2005 to investigate similar cases, as well as other incidents of state violence. "It is a duty that today's state is obliged to fulfill: to shed light on the truth covered up by the state in the past and redress the wrongs of history," Lee said. He vowed to step up eff

Nearly 50 percent of Koreans said they do not trust the judiciary, a poll showed Friday, while less than 30 percent expressed trust in two new agencies launched after abolishing the prosecution's investigative right last month. A Gallup Korea poll, conducted on 1,001 adults from Tuesday to Thursday, showed that 47 percent of the respondents expressed distrust of the courts, up 3 percentage points from the previous survey conducted in April last year. Forty-one percent said they trusted the courts, down 5 percentage points. The survey also showed that public trust in the Constitutional Court had declined after the court upheld the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol in April last year over his martial law bid. Compared with last year's survey, 49 percent said they trusted the Constitutional Court, down 12 percentage points, while distrust rose 5 percentage points to 36 percent. In the same poll, 29 percent said they trusted the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA), tasked with handling major crimes, compared with 49 percent who did not. Twenty-five percent expressed trust in

Kim Jong-chul, deputy commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), was nominated Friday to serve as the agency's new commissioner general, filling a post that has remained vacant for nearly two years since former President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law. Kim said he felt a heavy sense of responsibility over his nomination as KNPA commissioner general at a critical time, ahead of a meeting of the National Police Commission convened to deliberate on his appointment. "I am well aware that public expectations for the police are higher than ever and that concerns about the police are also growing," Kim said, adding he would participate in the commission meeting with a sense of responsibility and the utmost sincerity. The selection process for the KNPA commissioner general involves several steps: nomination by the presidential office, approval by the National Police Commission, a formal recommendation by the interior minister, a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly and, finally, appointment by the president. The KNPA commissioner general nominee can be

Google Cloud told The Korea Times that it deleted the Korean first couple’s personal information, exposed for about five months on its VirusTotal platform, immediately after Korean authorities requested its cooperation. The response follows a finding that the malware analysis platform, owned by Google Cloud, had hosted sensitive personal information of 168 people aboard the presidential jet during President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to Europe in June. "Google Cloud removed the relevant data from VirusTotal immediately after confirming government authorities' request," the company said in a statement sent to The Korea Times on Friday. VirusTotal scans uploaded files and URLs simultaneously using more than 70 antivirus engines and security tools. Files submitted through its public interface are shared with participating security vendors and can be accessed by organizations that subscribe to VirusTotal’s enterprise datasets — meaning a document uploaded for a routine malware check can become available to outside parties. It was found through a media report on Monday that a file containin

President Lee Jae Myung's chief secretary for political affairs, Hong Ik-pyo, has offered to resign, according to sources Friday. The former three-term lawmaker, who took office in January, was expected to leave the presidential office after Sunday, the sources said. Cheong Wa Dae is widely expected to name Hong's successor around Sunday, with Choi In-ho, currently president of Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corp., reportedly being considered as a candidate.

Foreign children seeking legal recognition from Korean parents can now secure long-term stay rights and legal employment during court proceedings, eliminating a regulatory loophole that often forced vulnerable families into financial hardship or overstaying their visas. Under updated immigration guidelines revealed Friday by the Ministry of Justice, children without citizenship and their custodial parents involved in paternity suits will be eligible for a G-1 visa, a long-term humanitarian status granted in six-month increments for the duration of legal disputes. Crucially, the policy opens a pathway to temporary work permits for parents and guardians following review by an internal human rights committee, allowing them to support themselves legally while navigating the court system. "The measures are designed to fulfill the state's minimum humanitarian obligation by preventing hardship for children of Korean lineage and their guardians during trial proceedings," acting Justice Minister Lee Jin-soo said. Until now, foreign mothers or fathers entering Korea on short-term C-3 tourist visas

A key conference of representative judges from courts nationwide will take place later this month, officials said Friday, amid calls to uphold judicial independence in response to the ruling party's criticism of the judiciary. The conference had been initially set for Dec. 7 but will take place one week earlier than scheduled on Nov. 30 following a vote by its members. No agenda has been set, but it is expected to include discussions on the judiciary's independence. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has been pushing for a parliamentary probe into Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, accusing him of interfering in politics. The DPK has accused Cho of meddling in last year's presidential election after the Supreme Court overturned a not-guilty verdict in President Lee Jae Myung's election law violation case and sent it back to a lower court for retrial just ahead of the June 3 presidential election. The party also took issue with Cho's refusal to recommend a new candidate for Supreme Court justice as requested by the presidential office, as well as allegations of improper use o

Kookmin University’s Graduate School of Total Arts will launch an interdisciplinary master’s degree program in artificial intelligence (AI) and arts management for the spring 2027 semester. The university said Wednesday that the new program aims to nurture professionals who can apply AI expertise to the arts and culture sectors. The “AI+Arts Management” program will integrate AI into all aspects of arts management, from performance and exhibition planning to arts organization management, audience development and fundraising. The program will focus on helping students understand how technological advances are transforming the arts and arts management and develop new planning and operational models using AI. Beyond improving work efficiency through AI, the program will emphasize expanding access to arts and culture and generating broader social benefits. It will also support the development of startups that use AI to address social challenges. The curriculum consists of core and elective courses. Core courses provide students with a foundation in AI applications and the fundamentals

Temperatures in Seoul will drop below zero this weekend as early winter sets in, with strong winds sweeping much of the country Saturday and rain forecast for central regions Sunday. Saturday’s morning lows nationwide will range from minus 5 degrees to 5 degrees Celsius, with daytime highs of 8 to 14 degrees, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration, Friday. Both are below the seasonal norms of 2 to 11 degrees and 13 to 20 degrees, respectively. Cold air moving in from the northwest is expected to bring subzero temperatures, mainly to the central region, eastern North Jeolla Province and inland Gyeongsang areas. The weather agency issued cold alerts for these regions. Seoul's morning lows are forecast to be minus 1 degree, but chilly winds will drive Seoul’s wind chill to around minus 5 degrees. Daytime highes are expected to rise to 9 degrees. Incheon will have temperatures ranging from minus 1 degrees to 8 degrees and Suwon in Gyeonggi Province from minus 1 to 9 degrees. Inland areas of Gangwon Province will see lows of minus 5 to minus 3 degrees and highs of 8 to 10 de

Korea is expected to experience a warmer and wetter winter this year due to the influence of a climate phenomenon known as El Nino, the national weather agency said Friday. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said an El Nino — a naturally recurring phenomenon of warming of waters in parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean — has been forming since May and is expected to peak in December. The latest phenomenon is forecast to develop into the strongest on record and bring warm, humid air into Korea this winter, it said, citing record sea surface temperatures of the El Nino monitoring zone. The moving average sea surface temperature for August to October measured 2.4 C above the long-term average, marking the highest for the period since records began in 1950, according to the KMA. Due to the influence of El Nino, Korea's average temperatures in November, December and January are projected to be higher than the long-term averages, with more rainfall than usual in the first two months, it said. Lee Mi-seon, head of the KMA, said in a release the public should still be prepared for po

The veterans ministry said Friday it will invite foreign veterans who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War to the country, along with their family members, to commemorate their service on an annual memorial day. A total of 36 people from six countries and their family members will arrive Sunday for a six-day visit, according to the ministry. The International U.N. Veterans Memorial Day is held annually Nov. 11. The visit is part of the Turn Toward Busan program, which aims to commemorate the service of foreign Korean War veterans. Among the invited veterans is William Walsh, 97, who served as a British Army soldier and trained foreign troops to be deployed to the war at a military battle school, from 1953 to 1955. This year, Canadian veteran Vincent Courtenay, who first proposed the visit program in 2007, along with Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, will also travel to South Korea next week to pay their respects to the U.N. forces, according to the veterans ministry. The program includes a visit to the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, some 330 kilometers southe

Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leader Kim Min-seok issued a public apology Friday over allegations he had raised that members of a religious sect had joined the party en masse to influence the party's leadership race. The renewed apology came after Kim apologized at a closed-door meeting earlier this week, acknowledging that an internal party investigation had found no evidence to support his earlier claim that followers of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a nonmainstream religious sect, had colluded with party lawmakers to join the DPK to sway the outcome of the Aug. 17 leadership election. "I once again offer my apologies to party members and to all those who were hurt, as I raised strong concerns over the interference of religion in politics during the last party convention," Rep. Kim said during a meeting of the party's supreme council. Kim vowed to focus on uniting the party and improving people's livelihoods while addressing the issue through the party's internal efforts. The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has called for a joint prosecution-police probe into the c

Authorities are investigating all possibilities surrounding the leak of personal information of President Lee Jae Myung and 167 members of his delegation for a trip to Europe in June, including whether an outside contractor was involved, officials said Friday. The presidential office and the foreign ministry said Tuesday that they had discovered the exposure of personal information after a file containing details of 168 people aboard the presidential aircraft was uploaded to VirusTotal, a website used to scan files for malware. The file contained the names, affiliations, positions, dates of birth and passport details of Lee, first lady Kim Hea Kyung and 166 others, including senior officials, presidential security personnel and journalists covering the presidential office. "We are thoroughly investigating the circumstances from multiple angles, keeping all possibilities open," the ministry said in a statement. "We take the possibility of leaks involving diplomatic materials very seriously and are conducting an investigation in cooperation with the police and other relevant agencies," it

BUSAN — Bukang-i the shark, which drew more than a million viewers while staying in a coastal canal in the southeastern city of Busan for over a month, has not been seen for 11 consecutive days, raising the possibility that it has finally headed out to the open sea. According to the National Institute of Fisheries Science and relevant agencies, no sightings of Bukang-i have been reported since Oct. 27 near the exit of the canal leading out to Busan's North Port, located about 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Experts speculate dropping water temperatures near the canal's exit could have played a role in the shark's disappearance. The optimal water temperature for sharks is between 18 and 26 C, but surface water temperatures off the North Port have fallen to 18-19 C. The shark — affectionately named Bukang-i after Bukhang, Korean for North Port — was first spotted in the canal Sept. 18. Since then, the canal park has turned into a major tourist attraction, drawing nearly 1.7 million visitors as of Oct. 29. Local authorities made three attempts to guide the shark out of the canal in

Only one of 10 elephants that died at Korean zoos and other captive facilities from known causes was recorded as having died of natural causes related to old age, a new report has found. Most facilities kept indoor enclosures — spaces where animals can stay out of public view — closed during visiting hours, with keepers explaining that they did so because visitors complained when elephants went inside and could no longer be seen. According to a report titled “Survey on the Welfare of Captive Elephants in Korea,” released Monday by the animal rights group Animal Liberation Wave, only one of the 10 elephants whose causes of death were identified died naturally of old age. Their average age at death was 32.1. The leading causes of death included cardiovascular and circulatory diseases, as well as foot and joint disorders. The group said these conditions were closely linked to captive environments, including confined spaces, hard flooring and insufficient exercise. The survey was conducted from March to June this year at nine facilities that keep elephants in Korea. Researchers visit

Traffic congestion is expected in central Seoul this weekend due to labor rallies and marathon events, police said Friday. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a major umbrella labor union, plans to hold a preliminary rally near the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office in downtown Seoul at 1 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. KCTU members will then march through downtown Seoul before holding their main rally for about an hour on the road between Sungnyemun Intersection and Taepyeong Intersection. They are scheduled to march back to the labor office from 4 p.m. In the Yeouido area, the "Save Race Marathon," sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will take place from 8 a.m. on Saturday, police said. The course starts at Yeouido Park, crosses the Sogang Grand Bridge, and reaches a turnaround point at the Gwangheungchang Station intersection. As a result, vehicle traffic on the Han River bridge will be restricted from 7:50 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. Traffic in Yeouido is expected to become congested again from 2 p.m., when another major umbrel

President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating rose slightly to 41 percent, a poll showed Friday, marking the first time in over two months that the figure exceeded 40 percent. The survey, conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday through Thursday on 1,001 people aged 18 and older, showed that positive assessments of Lee's performance rose 2 percentage points from a week earlier. Negative assessments also rose 1 percentage point to 50 percent. Lee's approval rating last exceeded 40 percent in the last week of August, when it stood at 42 percent. After weeks of decline, the figure returned to 40 percent in the fourth week of October before slipping to 39 percent last week. Gallup assessed that Lee's approval rating has remained "largely unchanged" over the past three weeks despite the latest increase. Among those who positively assessed Lee's performance, 18 percent cited diplomacy, followed by economic and livelihood issues at 15 percent, and communication at 10 percent. Real estate policies and economic concerns were among the main reasons cited by those who disapproved of Lee's performance at 19

Nvidia Corp. has finalized its payment of $1 billion of investments to Naver Corp. on Friday and acquired 4.13 percent of the portal operator's shares through a third-party rights offering. The South Korean company said it has issued over 6.5 million shares through a private placement involving the U.S. chipmaker, after receiving 1.3 trillion won ($1 billion) in proceeds, according to its regulatory filing. Nvidia's stake acquisition of Naver is set to speed up their joint artificial intelligence (AI) factory venture announced in June. Naver plans to construct graphics processing unit (GPU)-based infrastructure, starting with its Gak Sejong data center in the central city, to expand its GPU-as-a-service businesses.

Chinese e-commerce platform Temu said Friday that a survey it conducted found that 91 percent of Korean sellers reported improvements in their businesses after joining the online marketplace, including increased sales and access to new customers. The company-run survey of more than 100 sellers, conducted in August, found that 58 percent reported higher sales volumes, while 47 percent said they had reached new customer groups. Temu entered Korea in July 2023 and fully introduced its Local Seller Program in May last year, allowing domestic merchants to sell to consumers nationwide. About 66 percent of the survey respondents had been selling on the platform for six months or less. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees accounted for 85 percent of the respondents, while 94 percent had already sold through other online channels before joining Temu. Meanwhile, 82 percent viewed Temu as a sales channel that complements their existing sales routes or as a major driver of sales growth. Another 39 percent said they had expanded their operations after joining Temu or planned to do so within 12 mon