Sales in the first quarter reached 4.74 trillion won! South Korea's Coupang has great potential

Recently, Coupang Chairman Bum-seok Kim emphasized Coupang's growth potential, saying that Coupang is in the early stages of its growth cycle.

He praised Coupang's performance in the first quarter of this year. It is reported that Coupang achieved the highest sales in history in the first quarter and continued to achieve "rocket growth", but the scale of the deficit continued to expand.

It is understood that Coupang was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States in March. The company's sales in the first quarter of this year were 4.74 trillion won, an increase of 74% over the same period last year, which is the highest sales in the first quarter on record. However, as various expenses increased, operating losses increased by 180% to about 290 million US dollars.

Coupang explained that this was due to one-time stock compensation expenses of about 97.9 billion won, as well as an increase in general administrative expenses as investment and hiring increased.

In the first quarter, the number of active customers who had purchased items on Coupang reached more than 16.03 million, an increase of 21%, an increase of more than 1.2 million from 14.8 million at the end of last year.

Separately, Chairman Kim said in a conference call held after announcing the first quarter results this year: “Next year, we plan to increase Coupang’s nationwide coverage by 50% or more.”

He explained that first-quarter sales for Coupang's new early morning delivery service, "Rocket Fresh," grew more than 2.5 times compared with the same period last year.

He added, “It started as a small-scale food delivery app that was concentrated in the Gangnam area of ​​Seoul until the middle of last year, but it expanded to Jeju Island in less than a year, and now it has become a nationwide service.”

Chairman Kim introduced: "Coupon Itz was the number one mobile app download in Korea in the first quarter of this year , and it has grown faster than any other service since Coupang was founded. "

Chairman Jin said : " Although the early morning delivery of fresh food has achieved rapid growth last year, the penetration rate is still very low . In the future, we will focus more on investing in the fresh food market . "

When asked about the possibility of overseas expansion, he indirectly said he had no plans for now, saying the journey in South Korea, one of the world's fastest-growing markets, is still in the very early stages .

South Korea

Coupang

First Quarter

Sales