Market Views · No. 03 — Korean skincare market · Algeria
In a little over three years, Korean skincare has become the new reference for skin care in Algeria. None of these brands is genuinely established there, none communicates directly, and the supply described by retailers remains largely informal. The market was built without them.
The rise dates from the post-Covid period, around 2022–2023, and coincides with the explosion of TikTok. The study describes a three-step consumer logic: Korean culture is valued, that valuation installs credibility, and credibility precedes interest in the product. The category never had to introduce itself — it arrived in the wake of K-dramas and K-pop.
Set against Korean products by the participants, European brands — long established — are described as less effective, with results barely visible, technologies judged dated and formulas perceived as more chemical and more aggressive. The halt to imports, which ended nearly two decades of European use and made those products expensive, opened the door. K-beauty walked through it.
Consumer logic as the study sets it out. Qualitative study: this sequence describes a mechanism, it does not measure how often it occurs.
No Korean brand is genuinely established in Algeria and none communicates directly to the Algerian public: the relationship is built on product experience and on social media trends. The salesperson becomes the prescriber — saying what works, what to avoid, what is counterfeit. The women interviewed choose their shop as much as their product. In the retailers interviewed, Korean skincare was said to account for 60 to 80% of sales against European products (20 to 40%) — a declared order of magnitude, drawn from a small sample and limited to Algiers.
Perceptions stated in focus groups. Qualitative study: these elements describe representations, they do not measure product performance.
Qualitative exploratory study: the elements presented describe perceptions and usage and are not intended to be extrapolated to the whole market. The orders of magnitude quoted are declared, drawn from a small sample and limited to Algiers. No interviewed retailer and no element of the concept test is identified here.
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