[아이뉴스24 김승권 기자] “I will make a world where you can’t live without Coupang”
Bum-seok Kim, Chairman of the Coupang Board of Directors, made the same statement in the listing report on the New York Stock Exchange, which was listed on the 11th. This is the part where I feel the aspiration of Chairman Kim Bum-seok, who wrote the story of Coupang’s success.
Chairman Kim’s dream began in the United States. Chairman Kim settled in the United States in 1994 when he was a middle school student.
After graduating from Harvard University’s Department of Politics, he earned 3 billion won by selling magazines and monthly magazines in August 2010. This seed money is the beginning of Coupang.
As Chairman Kim started Coupang, he emphasized early morning delivery and innovative return service. We developed a service that delivers millions of products, not just a few products, to the door by simply placing an order before 12 p.m. the next day by 7 a.m.
Same-day delivery items also increased significantly. In particular, it now includes fresh food. If you don’t like what you ordered, you can return it at the door without the need for packaging. Coupang’s friend (delivery driver) scans the item by pressing a button in front of the door, and the refund is completed.
Chairman Kim explained, “This service is very enviable even abroad, including Amazon,” and “a huge investment in logistics and unique technological innovation made this possible.”
At that time, there was no company that directly delivered delivery by online shopping malls not only in Korea but also overseas. Coupang has established its own delivery system (Coupang Friend) in its own distribution center to enable next-day delivery. Coupang currently has more than 100 full-filment and distribution centers and 50,000 employees in over 30 cities across the country.
Fast delivery also worked, but what Kim paid special attention to was the advanced IT technology, that is, an easy-to-use shopping platform.
Even if you look at Coupang Chairman Kim Bum-seok’s comment (excerpt from “Coupang, Why We Innovate”), “a world where everything is based on software and you can’t do business without knowing it,” you can see how much he values IT.
Fast delivery and easy IT platform swallowed up the domestic market at once. In 2018, sales exceeded 4 trillion won and increased more than 10 times in four years.
Japan’s Softbank Chairman Son Jeong-eui was fascinated by rocket delivery and invested over 3 trillion won. The new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) outbreak last year further highlighted Coupang’s presence.
As online shopping became the mainstream, sales and number of users increased explosively. Last year’s sales were about 13 trillion won, up 90% from 2019 (about 7 trillion won).
As of the end of last year, 14.8 million people bought more than one product in Coupang in the last three months. About one-third of the 48 million domestic Internet users.
Their purchases at Coupang last year averaged $256 per quarter, more than doubled compared to 2018 ($161).
In addition, out of 14.8 million subscribers, the number of’Rocket Wow’ membership subscribers, which can be called a regular customer, is 4.7 million, or 32%. Rocket Wow customers buy four times more often than regular customers.
Coupang’s dream is not just limited to e-commerce. Like Amazon, he dreams of becoming an absolute powerhouse in the online world. The possibility of expanding the business beyond distribution to content, etc. is endless.
“Korea is the only market that has not been dominated by the US Amazon and China’s Alibaba,” said Chairman Kim.
/ Reporter Seung-kwon Kim ([email protected])