Luxury Goods Sales Surge in Pandemic

Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and other luxury brands made a total of W2.4 trillion in Korea last year, up 20 to 30 percent as locked-down rich people had fewer things to spend their money on (US$1=W1,113).

The figures were revealed for the first time under a new law requiring foreign companies to make their earnings here public.

The revenues of U.S. big tech companies were lower than expected at W200-700 billion each and their operating profits were less than W10 billion.

But that may be due to creative accounting. For instance, W1 trillion in app sales here by Google was excluded because of a legal loophole that exempts companies with no fixed computer server in Korea.