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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 29, 2024

Mobile & Internet

Coupang upbeat despite soaring losses

  • PUBLISHED :April 17, 2017 - 16:02
  • UPDATED :April 24, 2017 - 12:11
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[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s leading e-commerce company Coupang seems determined to push ahead with its investments despite soaring losses, according to news reports on April 17.

The company posted an operating loss of 560 billion won (US$490 million) last year, as against the previous year’s 13 billion won, although its revenue jumped 67.6 percent to 1.9 trillion won. 


Coupang CEO Kim Bom



The growing losses are mainly on account of its investments for enhancing its Rocket Delivery service which it launched in 2014. The company also finished the construction of a new 99,000 square-meter logistics center in Incheon last year.

Industry sources say the firm’s overall losses so far could exceed 1.26 trillion won, almost equal to the US$1 billion funding it attracted from Japan’s SoftBank in June 2015.

“Besides SoftBank’s investment, we still have some cash reserves secured from Sequoia Capital and Black Rock,” a Coupang spokesperson was quoted as saying in a news report.

Coupang got funding of US$100 million and US$300 million, from Sequoia Capital and Black Rock in 2014, respectively.

“Investing in logistics is not a sunk cost like marketing and has high liquidity,” he said of concerns about the company’s big spending. “We will stick to our investment plans.”

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)

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