OASIS, which finalized the acquisition of TMON in June, still has not been able to resume TMON's service four months later. OASIS' plan to use TMON to move beyond fresh food and grow into a full-scale e-commerce company is also running into setbacks. In the meantime, domestic e-commerce companies that will compete with TMON are rapidly seizing the market through aggressive partnerships, new business launches, and large-scale investment.
According to the industry on the 24th, OASIS was selected as the final acquirer of TMON on June 23 through a compulsory approval process by the Seoul Bankruptcy Court. OASIS planned to resume TMON's operations on Aug. 11, but it was postponed once and is now indefinitely delayed.
The holdup stems from TMON's past large-scale settlement delay crisis. For OASIS to resume operations, it needs to set up an online payment system, but pushback and complaints from victims have led card companies to shy away from contracts with TMON.
OASIS spent 11.6 billion won on the TMON acquisition and said it would invest an additional 50 billion won to improve the financial structure after the deal. The plan was to secure TMON's 4 million to 5 million members and diverse seller infrastructure to leap into a full-scale e-commerce business. OASIS has about 2 million members.
OASIS offered an industry-low sales commission rate of 3% to 5% and moved aggressively to recruit sellers, signing contracts with about 10,000. But as the service restart keeps getting pushed back, expense burdens and sellers' anxiety are growing.
Oasis Market posted 283.9 billion won in revenue and 9.7 billion won in operating profit in the first half of this year. Revenue rose 8.3% from a year earlier, but operating profit fell 36%. Looking only at the second quarter, revenue increased 13.6% to 148.9 billion won, but operating profit fell 51.5% to 3.5 billion won. The impact came from higher advertising and marketing costs ahead of the TMON acquisition.
Amid this, competing e-commerce companies have recently targeted the market with aggressive expansion. AliExpress recently launched a pilot online grocery channel, "Ali Fresh," throwing its hat into the domestic fresh food delivery market. It is AliExpress' first business in Korea under the Shinsegae–Alibaba joint venture launched last month.
Ali Fresh focuses on selling domestic agricultural products and processed foods. It is currently in a pilot phase, but the company plans to officially launch the service by improving delivery efficiency and expanding product categories. An AliExpress official said, "During the pilot period, we will actively incorporate feedback from both sellers and consumers to grow it into an online retail touchpoint optimized for the Korean market."
Kurly also recently opened "Kurly N Mart" on Naver Plus Store and began service, laying the groundwork for business expansion. Kurly's main customer base had been concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area and two-person households, keeping MAU (monthly active users) at around 3 million for years, but observers say the tie-up with Naver has secured an opportunity to attract large numbers of customers.
In the process of entering Naver, Kurly also introduced items it had not previously carried, such as household goods and kitchenware, expanding its product portfolio.
Gmarket, which posted a 164.9 billion won deficit over the past three years, has also recently come under the Shinsegae–Alibaba joint venture and will receive large-scale support. The joint venture plans to inject 700 billion won annually in initial costs to strengthen Gmarket's competitiveness. It will invest 500 billion won a year to support existing and new sellers' growth and 100 billion won a year in customer promotions. It also plans to spend 100 billion won annually to develop AI (artificial intelligence) models to advance search functions.
An e-commerce industry official said, "Platform businesses must reinvest sales proceeds to continuously strengthen delivery, products, and service competitiveness, but OASIS has not even taken the first step yet." The official added, "In today's environment of even fiercer e-commerce competition, the longer the delay in resuming TMON's service, the harder it will be to secure market competitiveness."