Overview
The largest online retailer in South Korea,[13] Coupang's annual revenue as of 2021 was US$18.4 billion.[14][15] The company's Rocket Delivery network provides same-day or next-day delivery of more than five million unique items.[16] As of 2018, Coupang claimed that 99.6 percent of its orders were delivered within 24 hours.[17] 70% of Korean citizens lived within 10 minutes of a Coupang logistic center in 2020.[18]
Coupang was headquartered in Songpa District, Seoul, South Korea, until 2022 when it relocated to Seattle in the US.[19] The Seattle office opened in 2018 and grew to 350 employees within four years.[20] Coupang also has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Mountain View.[21] It has been incorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law[6] since 2010.[19][22]
Coupang was founded by Bom Kim in 2010. A student at Harvard University, Kim started to study for an MBA at Harvard Business School but dropped out six months into the program.[23]
Kim registered Coupang originally as a limited liability company in Delaware,[19] allowing it to access US funding. In November 2018, Coupang received a US$2 billion investment from SoftBank.[24] Other major investors in Coupang include BlackRock and Fidelity.[25]
The company grew during the COVID-19 pandemic with increased demand for online shopping. In July 2020, Coupang acquired the assets of Singaporean streaming service HOOQ to form the nucleus of its streaming service named Coupang Play.[26]
Coupang had its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange on 11 March 2021.[27]
On 4 June 2021, Coupang announced that it had started trial operations in Japan.[28] However it pulled out of the country less than 2 years later due to low growth potential amid the dominance of Amazon and local player Rakuten.[29] On 8 July 2021, the company launched in Taiwan.[30]
In January 2024, Coupang acquired online retailer Farfetch.
In late 2025, Coupang disclosed a large‑scale data breach affecting the personal information of tens of millions of users, prompting a government investigation that continued into 2026. The ongoing probe led to a drop in orders on the platform, which delivery workers and small business sellers reported as adversely affecting their income and sales.[31]
