Coupang Reports $830 Billion Won Loss in Q2, Cites Data Breach Fine; Revenue and Customer Base Show Recovery

Coupang Inc., the US-listed parent company of the South Korean e-commerce giant, posted a significant operating loss of $556 million for the second quarter. This figure, equivalent to roughly 830 billion won, was heavily impacted by a substantial 620 billion won fine imposed in connection with a personal data breach that occurred in November.

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The vast majority of the spending that was impacted by the data incident has already recovered, and we are now showing the same growth trend as before the incident occurred.

The company's revenue, however, showed resilience, growing 4% year-over-year to $8.856 billion. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased by 10%. When converted to South Korean won using the average quarterly exchange rate, the revenue amounts to approximately 13.3 trillion won. This revenue growth signals continued demand for Coupang's services despite the financial setback.

While the operating loss marks the second consecutive quarter of red ink, the number of active product commerce customers increased by 3.3% to 24.7 million compared to the previous year. This growth in customer base suggests that the company's customer metrics are recovering from the slowdown experienced after the data breach incident.

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Wow membership subscribers have surpassed the level before the personal information leak incident.

Coupang Inc. Chairman Bom Suk Kim expressed optimism during a conference call, stating that most of the spending affected by the data incident has already recovered, and the company is now back on its previous growth trajectory. He specifically noted that Wow membership subscriptions have surpassed pre-breach levels. Kim also highlighted the rapid progress in Coupang's Taiwan operations, where a dawn delivery service was launched within a year, a feat achieved much faster than in South Korea. He anticipates similar rapid growth in Taiwan, despite it being in its early stages.

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Taiwan started not from a blank slate, so we built the service faster than in the beginning.