The number of Coupang users has recently plunged following a massive personal information leak. Indicators also show that a significant portion are moving to rivals such as Naver, Gmarket, and 11Street.
According to IGAworks MobileIndex on Jan. 8, Coupang's daily active users (DAU) stood at 16,177,757 as of Jan. 5. That is a decrease of more than 1.81 million from the record high of 17,988,845 on Jan. 1.
Coupang's users increased for three straight days starting on the 29th of last month, then turned to a decline on the fourth day, and the drop widened. Daily users also first surpassed 17 million on the 30th of last month, then fell back down to the 16 million range.
Some analysts say this suggests a full-fledged exodus from Coupang by consumers. After personal information exposure escalated into a large-scale leak on the 29th of last month, there was a temporary surge of consumers accessing the Coupang app to check logins, verify passwords, or look up how to delete accounts, and some of them then left.
By contrast, users of other major domestic e-commerce corporations, including Gmarket, edged up. On the 29th of last month, when the Coupang incident surfaced, Gmarket had 1,366,073 users, but the next day that number jumped to 1,616,489.
In addition, 11Street and Naver Plus Store also saw a temporary increase in users early this month. Coupled with the rise in Coupang defections, these e-commerce corporations appear to have benefited as a side effect.