Philip Morris Korea Sold 2 Million IQOS Devices in a Year

Yesterday on the the 23rd of May, Philip Morris Korea announced that since the launch of iQOS last year, it has sold a total of 1.9 million units.

Diane Caruana

May 24, 2018

This time last year, Philip Morris International Inc.(PMI) had announced that its popular Heat not Burn device, iQOS, would be available for sale in South Korea as June 2017.

PMI has invested billions in producing alternatives to tobacco cigarettes and is hoping that revenue will reach 1.2 billion by 2020.

The iQOS device, is a smokeless alternative to combustible cigarettes and works by heating tobacco leaves known as Heets. These refills which look like short cigarettes, which must be inserted into the device and are heated once it is switched on, are sold under the Marlboro brand.

Philip Morris Korea has estimated that a million Korean smokers have switched from smoking to using the heat-not-burn products since last June. While the market share of Heets, has been reported at 7.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.

“I am pleased to see that our vision to replace cigarettes with science-based smoke-free products is becoming a reality in Korea at an unprecedented speed,” said Chong Il-woo, Philip Morris Korea’s managing director, during a press conference in Seoul.

Heets to be produced locally

As part of its efforts to keep up with the growing demand, Philip Morris Korea will start producing Heets locally in a factory in Yangsan, which will be the first facility in Asia to manufacture heated tobacco units for iQOS.

“I am pleased to see that our vision to replace cigarettes with science-based smoke-free products is becoming a reality in Korea at an unprecedented speed.”Chong Il-woo, Managing Director, Philip Morris Korea

PMI has invested billions in producing alternatives to tobacco cigarettes and is hoping that revenue will reach 1.2 billion by 2020, whilst aiming to produce 32 million iQOS devices for distribution just during this year.

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This article has been edited on May 29, 2018 with an image modification. Previous image used from Flickr by Vaping360 under CC BY 4.0 license.