Interview with Choi Sae-mi, CEO of Maycoders, a K-Beauty distribution and manufacturing platform

• Automated trade processes enable efficient small-batch, multi-SKU supply — optimized for SMEs and e-commerce

• SEOUL4PM exports 204 brands and 5,506 products overseas

• Expanded into manufacturing connections: “First half revenue already far exceeded last year’s”

[By Kim Hye-mi, EDaily]
“We are the only company that can take overseas orders, place them directly into Korea’s wholesale network, and support the shipping process through automation. Trade documents, such as certificates of origin required to receive tariff exemptions under FTAs, are also automatically generated. This year’s growth is expected to be more than triple compared to last year.”

Choi Sae-mi, CEO of the K-Beauty tech startup Maycoders, made these remarks in a recent interview at the company’s office in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. Maycoders operates two platforms: SEOUL4PM, a cross-border wholesale platform for K-Beauty, and MAYK, which connects overseas cosmetics sellers seeking customized K-Beauty products with domestic manufacturers. The company was founded to solve inefficiencies in the traditional cosmetics industry.

Breaking Away from the Legacy Export Model

According to Maycoders, the current structure of K-Beauty exports — which relies heavily on large buyers, scaling through capital, and establishing local subsidiaries overseas — is reaching its limits. Choi explained:
“This existing model focuses only on large customers in a few countries, which ultimately sidelines smaller businesses trying to distribute smaller volumes.”

Instead, Choi has focused on how to serve the 7.9 million small and mid-sized e-commerce companies worldwide that want access to K-Beauty. The answer, she said, was data-driven models and trade process automation.
“By automating trade procedures, we minimized human intervention, standardized each stage of the process, and optimized the workflow. Our automation, which even supports trade documents, meets the needs of overseas businesses looking to sell a variety of Korean cosmetic brands and products,” she said.

Proving the Model in Southeast Asia

Trade process automation opened the door for e-commerce operators in the Philippines, who had long been underserved. At one point, Maycoders’ SEOUL4PM platform accounted for 25% of online K-Beauty distribution in the Philippines. Today, SEOUL4PM supplies more than 300 K-Beauty brands and over 10,000 products globally.

The company later expanded with MAYK, developed in response to international clients who wanted to produce their own Korean cosmetic lines, which has also gained strong traction.

Surging Growth

In the first half of 2025, Maycoders’ revenue already exceeded last year’s total by 30%. Choi emphasized,
“As more customers flow in online, our unique strength as the only automation- and data-driven K-Beauty platform becomes clearer. Unlike others, we’re not dependent on the success of a single brand — we grow together with many brands and the K-Beauty industry as a whole.”

The Outlook for K-Beauty

Choi expects K-Beauty’s global popularity to last at least another decade. She pointed to two drivers:

1. Korea’s OEM and ODM manufacturing ecosystem, which enables a wide variety of products.

2. The “beautiful and stylish Korean image” amplified by Netflix, making Korean culture more visible worldwide.

“As more Korean faces — competing in looks as much as in content — appear on Netflix, global recognition of Korea will only become stronger,” she said.

*This article was translated to English for International buyers. The original Korean article can be viewed here.