[비즈한국] Ably, which recorded its highest-ever revenue last year, is expanding its footprint this year by launching new businesses and growing its organization. However, as losses and a state of complete capital impairment continue, some point out that this year's external growth must lead to strengthened profitability and improved financial structure. The collaboration with Alibaba has yet to show clear results, leaving the creation of tangible synergies as a future task.
Expanding headquarters and entering the offline market… A contrast to competitors downsizing
The fashion platform Ably appears to be in the midst of expanding its organizational scale. According to Bizhankook’s reporting, Ably Corporation, the operator of Ably, expanded its headquarters office space in Kyobo Tower, Seocho-gu, Seoul, from two floors to three floors earlier this month. Having previously used the 6th and 7th floors for office space, the company has now expanded its headquarters by leasing the 17th floor starting this month.
This is the first time in about five years that Ably Corporation has expanded its main office. In 2021, when Ably Corporation moved its headquarters from an office near Gangnam Station to Kyobo Tower, it expanded its office space by approximately five times compared to its previous size.
As the consumer slump continues and the women’s fashion platform industry is generally downsizing, it is notable that Ably is expanding the size of its headquarters. This is a move in contrast to competitors that are cutting costs and streamlining their organizations.
Kakao Style, which operates ZigZag, maintains a profitable trend but is seeing a decline in staff numbers. According to National Pension Service subscriber data, Kakao Style maintained a workforce of over 500 until last year, but a downward trend began at the end of the year, recently shrinking to the 480 range. NewNex, the operator of Brandi, which was once considered one of the top three women's fashion platforms alongside Ably and ZigZag, entered corporate rehabilitation proceedings last year. It is currently pursuing a merger and acquisition (M&A) before the rehabilitation plan is approved.
On the other hand, Ably has been launching new businesses one after another recently. It released its first beauty private brand, 'Vively,' in April, and introduced an overnight delivery service, 'Arrival Guaranteed,' in June. Recently, it launched 'Ably Place,' which allows reservations for offline stores such as workshops and bakeries, expanding its business domain into the offline space.
It is also picking up speed in securing personnel. Currently, Ably is conducting open recruitment for around 50 job positions through its career website. It is recruiting personnel related to its recently expanding businesses, including beauty PB, fulfillment, and new business ventures, as well as development roles such as back-end and machine learning. This is interpreted as an effort to grow its relevant organization in line with business diversification.
Ably explained that the expansion of office space is also an extension of this business expansion. An official from Ably Corporation stated, “As the business scale has grown rapidly recently and the number of employees has continuously increased, we have preemptively secured a workspace befitting this growth. This expansion of office space is also a decision based on the growth of the company,” adding, “We plan to continue building a solid business infrastructure based on a stable growth trend.”
Ably Corporation faces continued losses and complete capital impairment
Apart from aggressive business expansion, Ably is tasked with improving its profitability and financial structure. Last year, Ably recorded a transaction volume of approximately 2.8 trillion KRW, reaching an all-time high. Ably Corporation's 2025 revenue also increased by 10.6% year-on-year to 369.7 billion KRW.
However, the company failed to escape losses, recording an operating loss of 4.3 billion KRW and a net loss of 3 billion KRW. Financial burdens also remain. Cumulative deficits reached 225.2 billion KRW last year, and with total equity at minus 55.2 billion KRW, a state of complete capital impairment continues.
Ably Corporation explains that the growth trend is clear when looking at the Ably platform alone. An Ably Corporation official emphasized, “Last year, Ably recorded an operating profit of 13 billion KRW, and we are reinvesting the profits generated here into new businesses such as the men’s platform ‘4910’ and the Japanese platform ‘Amood’,” adding, “The company-wide operating loss has also decreased by 72% compared to the previous year, showing that the profit and loss structure and investment efficiency in new businesses are improving very rapidly.”
The official continued, “Operating cash flow in 2025 recorded a surplus of 15.1 billion KRW, and we are maintaining stable financial soundness by keeping cash and cash equivalents at the level of approximately 100 billion KRW.”
The market is paying attention to whether the collaboration between the two companies after Alibaba’s investment can lead to full-scale results this year. In 2024, Alibaba Group invested approximately 100 billion KRW to secure about 5% of Ably’s shares. The investment in Ably drew market attention as the first case of Alibaba securing a stake in a domestic online platform. Expectations were particularly high that if Ably were to utilize global distribution networks through its collaboration with Alibaba, it could stably secure overseas sales channels and new revenue sources.
However, although about a year and six months have passed since the two companies joined hands, the results of the collaboration are not yet clearly visible. Ably stated that while discussions to create global business synergies are ongoing, time is needed for actual results to appear. An Ably Corporation official said, “The two companies are closely discussing global business synergies as partners,” and added, “However, it is common for it to take a considerable amount of time to create tangible global business synergies.”
The company drew a line regarding speculations that Alibaba’s investment might lead to its participation in Ably’s management in the future. As Ray Zhang, CEO of AliExpress Korea, was appointed as a non-executive director of Ably and joined the board in February last year, some raised concerns that Alibaba could exert influence on Ably’s major management decisions.
The aforementioned official stated, “Alibaba’s participation in management is limited to the level of board participation, which is a role of a shareholder that occurs in the normal investment attraction process,” and added, “Actual company operations and business decision-making are being carried out entirely independently by Ably’s management.”