Coupang

Coupang () is a South Korean e-commerce company based in Seoul, South Korea, and incorporated in Delaware, United States. Founded in 2010 by Bom Kim, the company expanded to become the largest online marketplace in South Korea. Its expansion led the company to the video streaming distribution after launch the service Coupang Play. Coupang is often referred to as the "Amazon of South Korea", due its position and corporate size in South Korean online market.
Overview.
The 1st marketplace largest online retailer in South Korea, Coupang's annual revenue exceeds US$5.9 billion. The company's Rocket Delivery network provides same-day or next-day delivery of more than five million unique items. Coupang claims that 99.6 percent of its orders are delivered within 24 hours. 70% of citizens live within 10 minutes of a Coupang logistic center.
Coupang is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, in the Songpa-gu District. Coupang also has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Mountain View, and Seattle.It is incorporated in Delaware, United States.
Coupang was founded by Bom Kim in 2010. A student of Harvard University, Kim started to study for his MBA at Harvard Business School but dropped out after six months into the program. 
Kim registered Coupang as a limited liability company in the US, allowing to access US funding. In November 2018, Coupang received a US$2 billion investment from SoftBank. Other major investors in Coupang include BlackRock and Fidelity.
The company has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic with increased demand for online shopping. In July 2020, Coupang acquired assets of Singaporean streaming service HOOQ to form the nucleus of its streaming service named Coupang Play.
Coupang had its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange on 11 March 2021.
Financials.
Coupang has grown rapidly. In 2019, Coupang has announced that its revenue totaled 7.15 trillion won increased by 64.2 percent last year. Its operating loss declined from 1.13 trillion won to 720.5 billion won declining 36 percent. Main reason for the rise in revenue is the rocket delivery service that is over-night delivery. It created jobs to the local people as delivery requires vast amount of drivers and workers. Number of jobs created in Coupang rose to 30,000 in 2019 from 25,000 in 2018. Accordingly labor costs increased 100 billion won in 2014 to 1.4 trillion won in 2019. In 2020, COVID pandemic has accelerated the sales of the company.
According to the SoftBank, Coupang's estimated value is $9 billion and has earned $3.4 billion venture funding to date. SoftBank funded $2 billion in 2018 and $1 billion in 2015.
For percentage share holding, SoftBank has 33.1%; Greenoaks Capital has a 16.6% stake; Maverick Holdings, with 6.4%; and Rose Park Advisors, with 5.1%. BlackRock, with 2.1% and CEO Bom Suk Kim will own about 10.2%.
Its sales increased 74 percent year-on-year to $4.26.86 billion in 2021 Q1. Net loss increased 180% to $295.03 million in 2021 Q1. 
Services.
Rocket Delivery.
Coupang is well known for its fast and efficient delivery system. Rocket delivery is a signature service that Coupang provides. Users can receive the delivery item if they order it before midnight and the item will be delivered over-night by Coupang's own delivery man called Coupangman. In July 2020, Coupang's rocket delivery staff was renamed Coupangman to "Coupangfriend(쿠팡친구)". The reason is that the number of female delivery workers is increasing recently. It also implies to approach as friendly as a friend.
This rocket delivery service is free for the Coupang Rocket Membership Subscribers, which means that delivery fee is costless for entire rocket delivery tagged products. Rocket delivery is offered to the non-subscribers if they purchase more than KRW 19,800. It is estimated that 32% of Coupang users are subscribed as Coupang Rocket Membership Subscribers. 99.3% of Coupang rocket delivery orders are delivered within one day.
Rocket Delivery service is possible because the company possesses 200 warehouses that are approximately 20 million sq. ft across the country. Coupang's logistic center stores about 5.3 million types of products and they are stored by an efficient storage system called Random Stow Algorithm. About 1.7 million rocket delivery products are sent out from the logistic centers on a daily basis.
Rocket Wow.
Rocket Wow, a paid subscription service, similar to Amazon Prime, costs users KRW 2,900 per month. 
The features of Rocket Wow are:
Rocket Fresh.
Rocket Fresh is a fresh food delivery service. Similar to Rocket delivery, Rocket fresh delivers fresh foods overnight. Users can receive the food by 7a.m if they order it before midnight. It covers up to 8,500 kinds of foods. This service has saved time on grocery shopping and allowed social distancing to prevent COVID-19. 
When Rocket Wow Subscribers are ordering Rocket Fresh, they can choose an delivery option of Rocket Fresh Eco, which is an option to deliver the foods inside the fresh eco bag instead of paper box. This bag preserves the foods in a fresh condition and it is collected back by Coupangman in next delivery. 
Rocket Direct Purchasing of Foreign Goods.
Users can purchase foreign goods through Coupang. Rocket Direct Purchasing allows foreign goods to be delivered within 3 days.
Coupang Eats.
Coupang Eats is a food delivery service alike Uber Eats. Coupang users can order foods from the restaurant and the foods are delivered by the delivery man. During the delivery, users can track their food real time. According to the "Delivery Service Trend Report 2021" released by market research company Open Survey, the usage status of delivery apps was followed by Baemin (88.6%), Yogiyo (68.2%), and Coupang Its (34.7%). Compared to the previous year, Baemin rose 8.9 percent, Yogiyo fell 0.1 percent and Coupang Eats rose 28.6 percent. Coupang Eats' growth year-on-year was also noticeable in the recognition survey of each app. Baemin increased 2.4 percentage points from 93.4 percent last year to 95.8 percent this year, Yogiyo remained 90 percent, and Coupang Eats jumped 49.1 percentage points from 23.3 percent to 72.4 percent. Delivery bins fell from 62.7 percent to 55.5 percent. Coupang Eats topped the list with 74 percent for satisfaction with delivery apps. 
Coupang Flex.
Coupang Flex is an outsourcing service that provides temporary employment to anyone over 18 years old. People can choose the date they wish to work and their main work is delivery. Those who have cars can pick up the packages from Coupang's logistic centers and deliver by themselves. Those who does not have cars assist the Coupangman. Coupang flex users are paid KRW 800 per package during the day and KRW1200 per package during the night. On average, they tend to deliver 50 to 60 packages per day.
Coupang Play.
Coupang Play is an South Korean subscription-based video streaming service launched by Coupang in December 2020. It is based on the purchases of Hooq's assets.
Controversy.
Rocket Delivery.
Coupang's own delivery service, which was introduced in March last year under the name of "Rocket Delivery," became a hot topic as it promised delivery within 24 hours for purchases worth more than 9,800 won. The service even delivered on holidays. Thanks to this, Coupang currently leads the Korean e-commerce industry in terms of sales. However, Coupang purchases and delivers one ton of trucks for delivery as private cars, not for freight transportation businesses. So the license plate of the delivery truck is white, not yellow for freight. In addition, if a refund is made according to the consumer's simple change of mind, it is receiving 5,000 won in return costs in the name of actual expenses such as packaging and labor costs.
Worker deaths.
Coupang has been involved in numerous complaints by rights activists and families of workers who died from overwork. Poor work conditions and overnight work has been responsible for deaths of numerous couriers and warehouse workers. "Seven Coupang employees and two subcontractors have died of cardiovascular disorders, such as heart attack, for the past year," Kwon Young-gook, a lawyer and the co-chairman at the Committee for Coupang Workers' Human Rights and Health said. "Out of the nine deaths, five are connected to overnight work as they passed away during or after night duty," He noted. 
This is not the only business that is facing the problem, as workers across Seoul have started a strike demanding better working conditions in late 2020, which is still ongoing. CJ Logistics and Hanjin Transportation are some of the multiple businesses that have been involved in the controversy.
Item Winner (product exposed exclusively).
There is a debate over the item winner system, which selects the cheapest product among the same products as a sole seller.There is criticism that even one won can monopolize the market by selling the market. However, according to Coupang's terms and conditions, the right is delegated to Coupang as soon as the product's image and trademark are posted. In the process, problems can arise because other sellers use and abuse images without permission.