Coupang

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.

Kim registered Coupang originally as a limited liability company in Delaware, allowing it 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.

In July 2020, Coupang acquired the 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.

On 4 June 2021, Coupang announced that it had started trial operations in Japan. 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. On 8 July 2021, the company launched in Taiwan.

In January 2024, Coupang acquired online retailer Farfetch and its subsidiary Stadium Goods, which serve customers in the United States and globally.

Coupang reentered the Japanese market in January 2025 with Rocket Now, a restaurant prepared food delivery service.

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.

Rocket Delivery

Coupang is known for its fast delivery system. Rocket Delivery is a signature service whereby items ordered before midnight will be delivered overnight by Coupang's own delivery personnel. In July 2020, Coupang's Rocket Delivery staff was renamed from Coupangman to Coupangfriend (쿠팡친구), since the number of female delivery workers has increased, and to imply friendly service.

Rocket Delivery service is free for the Coupang Rocket membership subscribers, for whom delivery is free for all Rocket Delivery tagged products. Rocket Delivery is offered to non-subscribers if they purchase more than KRW4,990. It is estimated that 32% of Coupang users are subscribed. 99.3% of Coupang Rocket Delivery orders are delivered within one day.

Rocket Delivery service is possible via 200 warehouses that are approximately 1.9 million m2 (20 million sq ft) across the country. Coupang's logistic centers store approximately 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 KRW2,900 per month. On 30 December 2021, Coupang adjusted the membership fee to KRW4,990 per month. The increased subscription service has applied to new subscribers.

Controversy

Worker wellbeing

Coupang has been involved in complaints by activists and families of workers, who allegedly died from overwork. In April 2021 Kwon Young-gook, a lawyer and the co-chairman at the Committee for Coupang Workers' Human Rights and Health, said "Seven Coupang employees and two subcontractors have died of cardiovascular disorders, such as heart attack, for the past year. [...] Out of the nine deaths, five are connected to overnight work as they passed away during or after night duty." According to statistics published in the Korea Economic Daily, Coupang had recorded no work-accident deaths since its launch in 2011, as of the end of 2020. In April 2021, the company introduced Coupang Care, a system that allows employees to take paid breaks and receive health care coaching.

In November 2025 the Korea Times reported that workplace deaths were becoming a persistent issue at Coupang and that since 2020 twenty-seven Coupang workers have died whilst at work according to the Taekbae Union which represents couriers. They note that before Coupang Inc. was listed on the NYSE in 2021, Coupang founder Bom Kim resigned from all registered titles relating to Coupang Corp. thus severing himself from any legal liability related to his registered executive positions in Korea whilst still holding over 70 percent of voting rights in Coupang Inc. and retaining influence over the company's affairs.

Item Winner system

There is a debate over Coupang's Item Winner system, which selects the cheapest product among the same products as the sole seller. There is criticism that sellers offering items for as low as one won can monopolize the market. According to Coupang's terms and conditions, this right is delegated to Coupang as soon as the product's image and trademark are posted. In the process, problems can arise because sellers can use other sellers' images, via Coupang's copyright-transfer agreements. In May 2021, the situation was reported to be under review by the Fair Trade Commission.

Cybersecurity breach

In 2025, it was revealed that a former Coupang employee stole a data key that enabled unauthorized access to 33.7 million Coupang customers’ data between June and November of that year. Coupang states that the data of between 2,609 and 3,000 accounts was taken and accessed several times, accounting for the 33.7 million. The South Korean government investigations team confirmed there was no secondary damage from the breach.

This breach prompted an investigation by the South Korean government and an apology by the company. Following the breach, CEO Park Dae-jun resigned in December 2025. Harold Rogers was named interim CEO. Rogers is Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of Coupang Inc., the company's U.S.-based parent company. After the breach, the South Korean authorities launched a coordinated "whole-of-government" response including labor, financial and customs investigations. Police raided the company's Seoul headquarters, tax authorities launched a special audit, and parliament summoned executives, including founder Bom Kim for questioning, to which the latter declined to attend.

The South Korean government's actions led to meetings between Vice President JD Vance and South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok where Vance warned the Prime Minister against penalizing Coupang and other U.S. technology companies operating in South Korea through unfair and discriminatory regulations and investigations.