Prompted by the personal data leak, so-called "Tal-Pang (quitting Coupang)" moves and talk of class-action lawsuits are spreading, but the number of users of Coupang-related apps has instead inched up slightly from before the incident.
According to WiseApp Retail, an app and payment data analytics firm, the weekly active users (WAU) of the Coupang app from the 1st to the 7th came to 29,935,356. That is about a 4.1% increase from a month earlier, Nov. 3–9 (28,768,841). Even after the data leak became known on the 29th of last month, user numbers did not fall and instead rose.
WiseApp estimates weekly users based on unique users who used the app from Monday through Sunday each week.
During the same period, users of major general online mall apps decreased overall. 11Street fell 25.2%, and AliExpress (-13.5%), Gmarket (-1.8%), and Naver Plus Store (-1.4%) also declined. However, it is worth noting that in early last month, the comparison point, these e-commerce companies ran large promotions, causing a short-term spike in users.
Coupang's weekly users also rose 1.7% compared to the previous week (Nov. 24–30) and 3.7% compared to two weeks prior (Nov. 17–23), continuing a gentle uptrend.
Users of affiliate services such as Coupang Play and Coupang Eats also increased. Coupang offers Wow membership subscribers benefits such as watching Coupang Play, free delivery on Coupang Eats, and discounts.
Coupang Play's weekly users totaled 3,940,054, up about 4% from a month earlier (3,789,095). It held second place in OTT (over-the-top) users after Netflix. Over the same period, users of Netflix and Disney+ increased 6.6% and 13%, respectively, while Tving (-5.8%) and Wavve (-5.3%) declined.
Coupang Eats also saw users increase. From the 1st to the 7th, Coupang Eats had 7,981,015 users, up about 3% from a month earlier (7,751,810). The growth rate was lower than Baemin (9.52%), but it was seen as relatively solid compared with Yogiyo (-2.34%), Ddangyo (-4.6%), and Meokgaebi (-6.4%), which all declined.
Meanwhile, on the 12th, Coupang streamlined the cancellation steps for its paid Wow membership. In the "My Coupang" menu, go to "Settings," select "Wow Membership," and then just tap "Cancel" and "Complete cancellation request" to finish. Previously, users had to pass through several deterrent pages on the "Cancel" screen, such as "Stop receiving Wow-only benefits," "Give up Wow-only coupons," and "Survey."
This change is seen as a follow-up measure in response to criticism from government authorities, including the Personal Information Protection Commission. Earlier, authorities said Coupang's cancellation process was excessively complicated and called for improvements. In response, Coupang reduced the account withdrawal steps from six to four and also minimized the membership cancellation process.