Coupang has reported a year-on-year decline in its monthly active users for the first time since the personal information leak incident in November last year.
Coupang, a major South Korean e-commerce platform, has experienced a decline in its monthly active users, dropping to 33.12 million, which represents a 0.2% decrease compared to February of the previous year. This drop marks the first recorded decline since the personal data breach that occurred in November 2022. Despite initially recovering in December and January post-incident, this latest data indicates a negative shift, especially as Coupang's operating profit plummeted by 97% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, reflecting a significant deterioration in its profitability.
The decline in Coupang's user numbers has led some users to migrate to competing platforms, notably to Curly and Gmarket. Curly, a specialized platform for fresh food delivery, saw its active users rise by 34.4% year-on-year to about 4.49 million in February. This increase can be traced back to a consistent upward trend that began in December 2022, as users flocked to Curly following the data breach. Meanwhile, Gmarket also benefited from this shift, reporting an 11.4% increase in its monthly active users, reaching around 6.96 million, as users previously inactive for over a year returned to the platform as a response to Coupang's troubles.
In contrast, the monthly active user growth rates for Chinese e-commerce platforms like AliExpress and Temu have shown signs of slowing down or even declining during the same period. AliExpress reported a decline of 1.9%, 4.5%, and 4.8% in growth from December to February respectively. Similarly, Temu's growth slowed significantly with slight recoveries in later months. These trends indicate broader competitive pressures in the e-commerce landscape, exacerbating the challenges faced by companies like Coupang.
