Founded in July 2010, Coupang is the second largest e-commerce marketplace in South Korea. The founder of the company is Bom Kim, a Korean-American businessman who is serving as the CEO of the company presently. Coupang is often compared to Amazon in South Korea because the company has expanded very rapidly and it is known for the fastest deliveries. The company is incorporated in Delaware, United States and apart from South Korea, recently it has entered the American stock market. In 2021, the company announced that it is expanding its business in Japan and Taiwan. Some of the other offices of Coupang are located in Seattle. Los Angeles, Shanghai, Mountain View, etc.
About Coupang
Coupang is not only a famous e-commerce company in South Korea but also recognized across the world as one of the biggest companies. The company’s growth has been exponential in the past few years and in the first quarter of 2021, sales of $4.26 billion were recorded. SoftBank majorly invested in the company when it was rising during 2015 and then in 2018 and currently, the company owns one-third of Coupang. The company is trying to create a better experience for the users every day by implementing innovative technologies. Both Forbes Magazine and MIT Technology Review recognized Coupang as one of the 50 smartest companies in the world. So, starting out only a decade ago, the company is making the same lists as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Tesla.
Coupang’s fastest delivery is what makes it the most widely used e-commerce site in South Korea. In 2019, the company introduced a new feature called Dawn Delivery which means that if a customer orders something before midnight it will get delivered by 7 am in the next day. This feature helped the company grow very fast especially during the time of pandemic as people could get emergency supplies in less than half a day’s duration. Coupang’s IPO when entering the American market became the biggest IPO of an Asian company after the Alibaba Group.
History of the Company
Back in 2010 when Coupang was established it started out as an endeavor similar to Groupon. But within the first three years, Company crossed everyone’s expectations and left most of its competitors behind in the market. It was able to attract many large investors and in 2014 raised $300 million successfully from US investors and then in 2015 and 2018 raised $3 billion from SoftBank. SoftBank, today, owns a major portion of the company while the stakeholders are Greenoaks Capital, Maverick Holdings, Rose Park Advisors, BlackRock, and Bom Kim.
After eleven years of successfully establishing one of the largest Asian e-commerce companies, Coupang has a workforce of more than 50,000. It is because of the fastest deliveries that people in South Korea uses Coupang extensively. The company claims that 99.6% of the order received are delivered within 24 hours. The company uses Rocket Delivery Network and 70% of the South Korean citizens have a Coupang logistic center within a 10-minutes distance from their home.
Is Coupang better than Amazon?
Though in South Korea, Coupang is used extensively when compared to Amazon, the former has a very small customer base. Coupang has approximately 15 million customers whereas Amazon has over 100 million prime customers across the world. But, the customer base of Coupang will steadily increase because it is launching in overseas markets. Similar to Amazon Prime membership, Coupang has also launched a membership program (Coupang Wow Rocket Membership) and nearly 32% of the total customers are paying for it. The delivery speed of Coupang is unmatchable even for Amazon especially when it comes down to groceries.
About the Founder
Born in Seoul, Bom Kim left Korea at the age of seven and went to boarding school in Massachusetts. Later, he attended Harvard University followed by Harvard Business School but dropped out after six months. Before starting Coupang, he worked at Boston Consulting Group and currently his net worth is approximately $6.8 billion.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more