Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has set up a business entity in Korea to directly purchase Korean consumer goods for sale in China, the trade ministry said Wednesday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and JD.com jointly held a briefing on the company's business model for some 200 Korean consumer goods companies, the ministry said in a press release. During one-on-one meetings held on the sidelines of the briefing, some Korean companies signed deals worth a combined $1.5 million to ship their products through JD.com's business-to-consumer (B2C) platform in China, it said. "JD.com plans to increase its direct purchases of Korean consumer goods as local demand for K-beauty and K-food products is expected to grow further on the back of the global popularity of Korean culture," a JD.com official said. The government will provide full-scale support to Korean companies seeking to enter the Chinese market through major e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, the ministry said. Korean exports of consumer goods to China reached a record