stockrowWhat it does
Coupang is an online retailer and services company that sells products to consumers and provides a marketplace for other merchants. Its offerings include general merchandise, fresh groceries, restaurant delivery, video streaming, financial technology and luxury fashion. Coupang was founded on 2010-08-10 and is headquartered in Seoul. Bom Kim is its chief executive officer.
Customers can buy products that Coupang owns as well as products sold by third-party merchants through its apps and websites. In Korea, its Rocket Delivery service offers next-day delivery across millions of products. Its Rocket Fresh grocery offering sits alongside general retail, while Eats handles restaurant ordering and delivery. Play provides online content streaming, and Farfetch connects luxury sellers and brands with customers.
Coupang operates much of the infrastructure behind its service, including technology, fulfillment and logistics. Its delivery options include same-day, next-day and dawn delivery, depending on the market and service. WOW membership provides delivery benefits and other service perks.
The company also serves merchants and suppliers. It offers advertising on its websites and apps, and its Korean fulfillment and logistics service gives merchants access to its fulfillment, delivery and customer network. Sellers using its U.S. facilities can ship products there for Coupang to store, pack and send to customers.
How it makes money
Coupang earns revenue from selling inventory it owns, charging merchants for marketplace services, and providing services such as restaurant delivery, advertising and memberships. For an owned-inventory sale, it records the product sale as retail revenue. For a third-party marketplace transaction, it earns a commission without acting as the merchant of record or taking possession of the inventory.
Net retail sales were $26.3 billion in FY2025, representing 76.2% of revenue. The company also earns subscription revenue from WOW memberships. Promotional discounts reduce the selling price and revenue recorded on the related transaction; loyalty rewards defer a portion of revenue until the reward is redeemed or expires.
The company manages its business through two segments. Product Commerce primarily includes Korean retail, third-party marketplace sales, Rocket Fresh and related advertising. Its revenue comes mainly from sales of owned inventory in Korea, merchant commissions, logistics and fulfillment fees, and the Korean retail WOW membership program. Product Commerce revenue was $29.6 billion in FY2025.
Developing Offerings includes Eats, Play, fintech, Taiwan retail and related advertising, as well as Farfetch. Revenue in this segment is generated primarily by Farfetch, Eats and Taiwan retail. Developing Offerings revenue was $4.9 billion in FY2025. Alongside product and service sales, Coupang offers suppliers and merchants advertising placements on its websites and mobile apps.
| Product or service | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net retail sales | $26.3 billion | 76.2% | 10.2% |
| Third-party merchant services | $7.1 billion | 20.6% | 27.5% |
| Other revenue | $1.1 billion | 3.21% | 34.9% |
Customers and how it sells
Coupang serves consumers shopping for daily essentials, general merchandise, groceries and luxury goods, as well as customers using restaurant delivery, streaming and payment services. It also serves merchants and suppliers that sell or advertise through its apps and websites. Farfetch connects luxury sellers and brands with customers through its marketplace.
Coupang serves millions of customers in over 190 countries and territories. A majority of its operations take place in Korea, where Product Commerce includes its core retail and marketplace businesses. The company also has retail operations in Taiwan and operations or support services in Singapore, China, India, Japan and Europe. Its Rocket Overseas service connects its merchant partners with customers in Taiwan.
For Product Commerce, an active customer is an account holder who ordered at least once directly through the segment’s apps or websites during the relevant quarterly period. Coupang tracks the number of active customers and revenue per active customer as indicators of customer engagement and potential revenue growth.
Merchants using Coupang range from small and medium-sized enterprises to larger sellers. In Korea, more than 75% of its small and medium-sized enterprise sellers are based outside Seoul.
| Segment | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Commerce | $29.6 billion | 85.7% | 10.8% |
| Developing Offerings | $4.9 billion | 14.3% | 38.5% |
Suppliers and costs
Coupang sources products for its own retail inventory and works with third-party merchants that sell through its marketplace. Its direct-sourcing and mobile-fulfillment arrangements support delivery of high-volume, locally sourced products. Merchants can also use Coupang’s fulfillment and logistics services in Korea, while sellers in the United States can send products to its facilities for storage and delivery.
Cost of sales primarily includes the purchase price of products sold directly to customers and logistics costs. It also includes inbound shipping and handling as products are sold, outbound shipping, restaurant delivery costs, and depreciation and amortization.
Coupang directly employed approximately 108,000 people as of December 31, 2025, most of them in frontline fulfillment and logistics roles. The company identifies labor, energy, packing supplies, leases, technology and logistics among costs that can increase. It also invests in fulfillment centers and technology: as of December 31, 2025, new construction contracts had remaining capital expenditure commitments of $290 million.
- Revenue$34.5B
- Cost of revenue−$24.4B
- Selling, general and administrative−$9.7B
- Operating income$473.0M
Competitive position
Coupang competes across retail, services and the infrastructure used to deliver orders. Its rivals include offline, online and omnichannel retailers; grocery sellers; restaurant delivery services; fulfillment and logistics providers; advertising providers; streaming services; payment platforms; and luxury goods sellers. Search engines, comparison-shopping sites, social networks and AI shopping tools also compete to help customers discover or acquire goods and services. Coupang does not name individual competitors.
Its Korean Rocket Delivery service uses an integrated fulfillment, logistics and technology network to provide next-day delivery across millions of products. WOW membership adds delivery benefits and service perks. For merchants, Coupang offers fulfillment, logistics, access to customers and advertising, while Farfetch provides luxury brands with a direct-to-consumer distribution channel.
Our reading: The integrated delivery network is a meaningful competitive asset because it supports both fast consumer delivery and services for merchants, although it requires continuing investment in infrastructure and labor.
Our reading: Membership benefits and the breadth of services may encourage customers to use Coupang repeatedly, but the available evidence does not establish how difficult it is for customers or merchants to switch to competing services.
Growth opportunities
Coupang’s growth plans include increasing customer spending and purchase frequency, expanding newer services and entering new geographies. Product Commerce revenue grew 10.8% in FY2025, while Developing Offerings revenue grew 38.5%. Coupang attributes the Product Commerce increase primarily to higher revenue per active customer, combined with an increase in active customers; foreign exchange partially offset that growth.
Developing Offerings includes restaurant delivery, streaming, fintech, Taiwan retail and the Farfetch luxury marketplace. Coupang attributes the segment’s revenue increase primarily to its growth initiatives and greater customer engagement in these offerings. The company has also introduced Rocket Overseas in Taiwan, connecting merchant partners with customers in another country.
Coupang expects investment in its growth strategy to remain significant, particularly in Developing Offerings, newer services and new geographies. It also plans to expand fulfillment, logistics and technology capabilities and to acquire and build new fulfillment centers. The company expects future infrastructure and workforce expenditures to exceed several billion dollars over the next several years.
Coupang’s customer measures reflect another part of its growth strategy: it tracks both the number of Product Commerce active customers and revenue per active customer, including how frequently customers shop and how much they spend across product categories.
- $18.4BFY2021
- $20.6BFY2022
- $24.4BFY2023
- $30.3BFY2024
- $34.5BFY2025
Structural risks
- Competition and customer demand: Coupang faces competition across its businesses and could lose market share if it does not innovate, compete effectively or respond to changing customer preferences. Results also depend on attracting and retaining customers and fulfilling orders on favorable terms.
- Data and privacy: Coupang experienced unauthorized access to customer accounts in November 2025. It believes the incident could lead to additional expenses from remediation, inquiries, enforcement actions and litigation. Failures to comply with privacy requirements could also result in regulatory scrutiny or penalties.
- Expansion and investment: New offerings and geographies bring regulatory burdens, differing consumer preferences and uncertain costs for fulfillment and logistics infrastructure. Coupang plans to continue to forgo short-term financial performance for long-term growth and may not maintain profitability.
- Operational disruptions: Interruptions to apps or websites, errors, or failures to respond to spending patterns could cause delays, reduced demand or loss of customers and merchants. Restrictions on Pay, which processes a substantial amount of payments across the business, could also adversely affect operations.
- Korean exposure: A majority of operations take place in Korea and are subject to Korean law. International tensions and other global conflicts could adversely affect the Korean or global economies and demand for Coupang’s products and services.
Leadership
Its dual-class common stock structure has the effect of concentrating voting control with Bom Kim.
| Name | Role | Since | Total pay, FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bom Kim | Chief Executive Officer | — | $3.2 million |
| Gaurav Anand | Chief Financial Officer | — | $6.6 million |
| Harold Rogers General Counsel and | Chief Administrative Officer | — | $7.0 million |
| Hanseung Kang | Former Representative Director, Business Management | — | $6.3 million |
| Pranam Kolari | Former Vice President of Search and Recommendations | — | $1.7 million |
Bottom line
Our reading
Coupang combines an owned-inventory retailer with a marketplace and related services, backed by its own fulfillment and delivery network. Its business rests heavily on Product Commerce in Korea, while it continues to invest in newer offerings and geographies. That model brings exposure to infrastructure and labor costs, competition, and the financial and regulatory consequences of the customer data incident.