Bestseller Trends in the Four Biggest Online Bookstores in Korea

3rd Week, May 2021

A keyword that can represent the first half of 2021 in Korea would be “money.” As economic uncertainty grew due to the spread of COVID-19, more people jumped into investing in the stock market and real estate. Hence, it is not surprising to see the rising popularity of business and investment books. For example, Trading and Son, You Must Study Money joined the top 10 bestselling books for the third week of May. Trading is a guide book about how to make a profit from buying and selling stocks in certain situations. Meanwhile, as you can guess from the sub-title “5 millionaire Dad’s Realistic Lecture on the Economy,” Son, You Must Study Money teaches basic economic principles and knowhow to accumulate wealth. Korean readers’ increased interest in “wealth” is expected to continue, as supported by books in the business and investment category hitting the bestsellers’ list.
On the other hand, some books have been at the center of readers’ attention even before their official publication. For example, Your Daughter is Strong-Minded is an essay about feminism, which talks about the story of two lively women living without getting married. The two authors, who are currently running a Youtube channel called “Heavytalker” that has 165 thousand subscribers and 8.3 million total views, candidly wrote down the life struggles they had to experience as women. Meanwhile, Water Up Fire Down: An Energy Principle for Creating Calmness, Clarity, and a Lifetime of Health is a book in which the author, a meditator, introduces “su (water) – seung (up) – hwa (fire) – kang (down) (水昇火降 in Chinese, meaning ‘keep your head cool and your belly warm’)” as a health principle and underlines the importance of natural cures.

You can also meet some books that offer helpful advice among the top 5 bestselling self-help books. For example, The Algorithm of Luck is a well-organized book about “luck and fate” based on the data the author and tarot master, Jung Hoi-Do, collected over 15 years by counseling approximately 15,000 people. Another book in the same category Free Workers, is published by “Mobills Group,” which runs “Mo Better Works” which made a brand that “talks about work.” It was released on May 1, which was International Workers’ Day. Readers that have long been contemplating about “work” would be able to find out the working style distinctive to themselves and how to work joyfully.

* The rank of bestsellers below was organized by integrating domestic best sellers in the third week of May from the four biggest online bookstores in Korea – Kyobo Bookstore, Aladdin, Yes 24, and Interpark.