[비즈한국] It appears that Coupang has maintained its position as the number one player in the domestic e-commerce market despite the recent personal information leak incident. According to IGAWorks Mobile Index on the 7th, Coupang's monthly active users (MAU) in March reached 35.03 million. This is an increase from 33.64 million in February and 34.01 million in January. During the same period, 11Street recorded 8.15 million, Naver Plus Store had 7.77 million, and Gmarket had 6.81 million, showing a significant gap from Coupang.
Chinese platforms have also risen to the top tier. As of March, Temu recorded 7.42 million monthly active users, while AliExpress recorded 7.12 million. Combined, these two platforms have 14.54 million users, a significant scale even when compared to the companies ranked below Coupang.
Consumer harm issues surrounding Coupang are still ongoing. The Korea Consumer Agency's Consumer Dispute Mediation Committee decided on the 7th to initiate collective dispute mediation procedures regarding Coupang's personal information leak incident. The committee plans to announce the commencement of related procedures by the 4th of next month.
Previously, a government joint investigation revealed that the scale of the personal information leak at Coupang was 33,673,817 cases, rather than the 4,536 cases originally reported. The investigation found that the attacker viewed the delivery list page, which included names, phone numbers, and addresses, 148,056,502 times; the delivery address modification page, which included common entrance passwords, 50,474 times; and the order list page 102,682 times. The Ministry of Science and ICT imposed fines on Coupang for delayed reporting and requested an investigation into violations regarding data preservation orders.
Nevertheless, looking solely at the March user metrics, it appears that Coupang's existing user base has remained intact. According to WiseApp/Retail, Coupang's estimated payment amount in March was 5.7136 trillion won, a 12% increase from 5.1113 trillion won the previous month. This marks a rebound from the downward trend that followed the official announcement of the data leak.
On the other hand, the trend of new user inflow was different. Temu ranked first in new shopping app installations in March. Temu recorded 749,320 installations, marking the number one spot for two consecutive months following 670,913 in February. Naver Plus Store ranked second with 674,100, followed by Coupang with 461,270, and AliExpress with 369,020. While Coupang continues to lead in terms of monthly active users, the growth trend of Chinese platforms and Naver Plus Store is evident at the stage of new user acquisition.