[Public Shopping to gross 1 trillion won in sales due to strong sales of face masks] South Korea's government-owned home-shopping operator Public Shopping has gained 762.8 billion won ($675 million) in sales in the first 10 months period of this year. Furthermore, it expects to gain a total of 1 trillion won ($884.9 million) by the end of this year, the company said yesterday. "It's confirmed that our annual sales will surpass our initial target of 830 billion won ($734.5 million)," said Public Shopping in a statement. "We've recently set a new goal of amassing 240 billion won ($212.3 million) in the period from November to December." Home Shopping added that its operation has been in the black with a cumulative surplus of 14.5 billion won ($12 million) as of the end of September. The company forecasts that it would reach 20 billion won ($17.7 million) by the end of this year. The non-store retailer attributed its success to the rising contact-free shopping trend, which was mainly caused by the impact of COVID-19, on top of the government's decision to designate the company as an official retailer of face masks. 35 million units of a face mask, an item that has become indispensable amid the new normal, were sold in the first nine months of this year in South Korea. The state-owned enterprise Public Shopping was founded in 2015, as part of the government's efforts to build strong distribution channels in the country. The enterprise has been under the umbrella of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups since January 2018.