"Is the domestic eyewear market a red ocean? It is not. Potential customers who have not yet had their vision or presbyopia corrected amount to 40%. It is a market that has not yet opened."
An Seong-su, Head of Team at Davich Optical Co., stressed the market's growth potential, saying this at the "vision correction and presbyopia functional lens conference" held on the 21st at Coex Magok in Gangseo District, Seoul.
An said, "More than half of the total population has a refractive error, but only 60% are actually receiving accurate vision correction," and explained, "The market size is currently about 3 trillion won based on the population receiving correction, but if we include the 40% who are uncorrected or undercorrected, the market could grow by about 1.8 trillion won more."
An analysis also noted that of Korea's approximately 51 million people, about 60% need vision correction, but many are enduring inconvenience because they do not recognize their vision problems themselves. Head of Team An added, "Finding the uncorrected and undercorrected population and properly diagnosing their vision problems is a task that optical shops must resolve going forward."
The rise in the presbyopic population is also cited as a factor supporting market expansion. Among the domestic presbyopic population, the usage rate of progressive multifocal lenses is only 11%, and about 70–75% still rely on ready-made reading glasses or single-vision near-use lenses. This means there is significant room to shift to functional lenses.
Head of Team An proposed the "Home-Office reading glasses," which supplement the limits of ready-made readers, as a new alternative. Unlike single-vision readers, which are designed to make only one point—either far or near—clear, Home-Office lenses have a structure in which the power gradually decreases toward the top, based on the lower near-use zone. Because of this, they are characterized by greatly reducing eye fatigue during prolonged near work.
Head of Team An said, "As more consumers use smartphones, tablets, and laptops at the same time, traditional readers with fixed focus inevitably cause fatigue," and explained, "Home-Office lenses are designed to reflect real-life patterns and are particularly suitable for early presbyopic customers or existing reader users."
Wearing Home-Office lenses also helps with a later transition to progressive multifocal lenses. Users can naturally adapt to changes in focus, reducing the burden that occurs when using progressive lenses. Head of Team An said, "The rate at which early presbyopic customers move to progressive products after experiencing functional near-use lenses is steadily increasing," and added, "This not only alleviates consumer inconvenience but also has a positive effect on optical shops' revenue structures."
He identified the main target groups for Home-Office lenses as: ▲ customers at the onset of presbyopia ▲ customers using existing readers who seek a more comfortable field of view ▲ full-time homemakers with many indoor activities such as smartphones, cooking, and housework ▲ office workers with high usage of digital devices.
Head of Team An emphasized, "Home-Office readers are not a Davichi-only product strategy but a market expansion solution that any optical shop can use," and said, "To raise both sales and customer satisfaction, we must move beyond simple sales of ready-made readers and propose customized functional readers for each customer."