[기자의눈] Controversy about Coupang nationality is meaningless

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In 2019, when the boycott from Japan began, Coupang was beaten as a Japanese company because the majority shareholder was the chairman of Softbank Son Jeong-eop. Two years later, in 2021, when Coupang chose to list on the US stock market, this time it was controversial that it was a US company. The accusation of’passing Korea’ was poured out for making money in Korea and going to the US.

The controversy over Coupang’s nationality sparked fire in the status of its stake in the board of directors disclosed through the listing plan. This is because Coupang’s parent company, which is listed, is headquartered in the United States, and a large number of executives, including Chairman Kim Bum-seok, have been identified as Americans. It was also said that the capital was actually all of the capital from foreign countries, so it was making profits in Korea based on foreign capital. In addition, when it was estimated that Coupang’s expected enterprise value would reach 50 billion dollars (about 55 trillion won), an analysis that the Korean people’s investment opportunities were blocked by listing on the US stock market came out, empowering the frame of’Coupang is an American company’. .

However, Coupang is a Korean company operating based on shopping malls, business sites and distribution centers in Korea. The number of employees, including Coupangman, a coupang delivery employee, reaches 50,000, and plans to hire 50,000 new employees by 2025. 99% of consumers are Korean. According to the industry, it is estimated that 20 million Korean consumers spent 2.4 trillion won in Coupang last month alone. Taxes on income earned through this are paid domestically.

In fact, it seems pointless to define the nationality of a company with equity structure in the global era, where business as well as consumption and investment cross borders. For platform companies that are not based on offline workplaces, there is no border at all.

In particular, Coupang is still small compared to global platform companies such as Amazon and Alibaba. Unlike Coupang, which has a cumulative deficit of KRW 4.5 trillion, Alibaba already recorded a surplus just before listing and the number of users was 15 times that of Coupang. Rather than considering nationality, it would be more productive for Coupang to draw a blueprint for growing the domestic e-commerce ecosystem by attracting more investments through listing on the US stock market, strengthening its domestic presence and expanding its overseas market share.

/ Reporter Park Min-joo [email protected]

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