End of year in 2016, South Korea’s local dining scene is changing. Card usage patterns show a decrease in alcohol-related consumption and earlier wrap-up of evening gatherings.

According to BC Card’s big data analysis, card use in restaurant and bar merchant categories have decreased during November 21st and December 20th (30 days) compared to the same period the previous year.

Card purchase volume in chicken, hof, soju bars, etc has decreased 8.6% and the number of transactions by 10.4%. The decrease is greater for personal cards as the volume and number dropped by 9.1% and 10.7% whilst the volume and number dropped by 7.3% and 8.6% respectively for corporate cards. Post-work evening gatherings have decreased not only at work places but also at a private level.

<Chart 1> Comparison on End-of-Year Card Purchase in Bars over the last two years (2015~2016 11/21~12/20)

Card purchase volume in restaurants, including Korean cuisine, Japanese sushi, Chinese, and Western menu have decreased by 0.5%. Average ticket price has also dropped by 4.4% (‘15 : 45,014 KRW -> ‘16 : 43,057 KRW) However the number of card transactions in restaurants has increased by 4.1% which can be explained by the trend in which people are looking for restaurants where they can drink and dine at the same time, instead of bars where one would normally go after dinner.

<Chart 2> Comparison on End-of-Year Card Purchase in Restaurants over the last two years (2015~2016 11/21~12/20)

An interesting fact is that purchase volume at high-end restaurants have dropped by a large fall (Korean cuisine -17.9%, Korean BBQ -14.0%, Japanese sushi -4.7%) but purchase in Chinese restaurants has increased by 4.9%.

The time of card transaction has also moved forward. At a time frame between 7PM and midnight, the percentage of transactions made before 9PM has increased by 1.8% from 2014 (53.9%) and 2015 (55.87%). It jumped again by 1.1% in 2016 (56.9%), showing a continuous increase over the years. This can be interpreted as lesser rounds of post-work drinking sessions and a quicker wrap-up of evening gatherings.

Mr. Suk Ho Jang, Director of Big Data Center BC Card, stated, “As people are adapting to the ‘119 Campaign’ – ending dinner at 1 place with 1 kind of alcohol before 9PM, post-work dining scene is changing to a more rational and healthier culture. BC Card plans to continue big data analysis to discover new trends, such as ‘Honbap (Eat Alone)’ and ‘Honsool (Drink alone)’ phenomena, and communicate the useful marketing information to customers and merchants.”