Media Coverage Trends on Chinese Cross-Border E-Commerce Platforms: A Keyword Frequency and Topic Modeling Analysis

Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms exemplified by AliExpress and Temu have recently exhibited rapid growth in the Korean market. This study undertakes a longitudinal analysis of trends in Korean media coverage to trace shifts in salient social issues over time. Drawing on domestic news articles, we categorized reports into four stages of discourse emergence, introduction, diffusion, and stabilization and applied keyword frequency analysis and topic modeling. The findings show that the volume of coverage rose in 2023 and surged in 2024, while media frames expanded from IT/science to economic concerns and, subsequently, to social and policy issues. Stage-specific shifts in high-salience keywords corroborate changes in media attention across periods. Topic modeling revealed additional themes including market competition, consumer responses, and institutional challenges signaling a shift from early coverage centered on trends in China’s e-commerce market (emergence, introduction) to later emphasis on domestic market impacts, consumer harm cases, and the need for government regulation (diffusion, stabilization). Building on these results, we propose implications for key stakeholders, including domestic firms and consumers, policymakers, and the academic community. While the study offers a timely perspective on the media framing of emerging e-commerce trends, it also underscores the value of follow-up research employing broader data and analytic methods.