Excel Kospi, a website that resembles Microsoft Excel but actually provides real-time stock market information, is displayed in this screenshot. Captured from the website
A website disguised as Microsoft Excel that allows users to check stock prices during work hours has gone viral in Korea, drawing both praise for its creativity and criticism over the country’s growing obsession with investing.
The site, called Excel Kospi, closely resembles a spreadsheet program, featuring Excel’s signature green borders and grid layout. At first glance, it appears to be an ordinary worksheet, but it is actually a platform that provides real-time stock market information.
The site’s introduction describes it as “a stock quote site designed to look like an Excel screen that people secretly view at work.” As of 10 a.m. Friday, the platform had recorded 19,334 cumulative visits for the day.
The service offers a range of features, including real-time information on Korean and U.S. stock markets, cryptocurrency prices and related news. Users can add stocks to a watchlist and enter their average purchase prices and holdings to track gains and losses without opening a brokerage mobile trading service.
This allows office workers to monitor stock prices in real time and make investment decisions during working hours without drawing attention from supervisors or colleagues. Actual stock trading, however, is not supported on the site.
Excel Kospi, a disguised stock-tracking website, displays real-time stock information through an interface designed to resemble Microsoft’s Outlook email software. Captured from the website
The platform also offers a beta version disguised as Microsoft’s Outlook email software. When activated, users can view stock information through an interface resembling an email inbox.
For example, clicking on a message in the inbox from sender “Lee Jae-yong” displays real-time stock information and related news about Samsung Electronics. The site also includes a live chat feature where visitors can communicate with one another.
Users who do not create a personal username are automatically assigned the nickname “salary thief,” a Korean slang term referring to employees who collect a paycheck while doing little work.
Online reactions have been mixed.
Some users praised the concept, saying, “It’s a great idea” and “Perfect for using at work.”
Others, however, said the site’s popularity reflects an excessive focus on stock investing among office workers.
“These days, office workers care more about stocks than their jobs,” one user said. “They check stocks on their way to work, during office hours and again after they get home.”
Another user criticized the trend, saying, “Companies need to grow for stock prices to rise, but if everyone spends their time investing in stocks, growth will eventually come to a halt.”
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.
