Interest in foreign employees inside Coupang has grown after the massive personal data leak. While foreigners are estimated to make up about 10% of all Coupang employees, they account for about 30% of the developer workforce.
According to materials submitted by Coupang to the National Assembly obtained by ChosunBiz on the 16th, foreigners account for about 30% of developers working at Coupang's Korea unit. By nationality, there are relatively many from the United States, India and China.
This is the first time Coupang has officially disclosed the share of foreign developers. Until now, Coupang classified personnel information such as the ratio of foreign employees and the total headcount as confidential and refused to disclose it.
A Coupang official said, "In the case of developers, Korean developers account for about 70%, an overwhelmingly high share, and employees of various nationalities, including the United States, India and China, also work here," and added, "It is difficult to submit the specific distribution by nationality to the National Assembly."
Right after the incident, a post on the anonymous workplace community Blind claimed that "more than half of Coupang's information technology (IT) staff are Chinese, and more than 90% of managers are," sparking controversy. Former Coupang CEO Park Dae-jun said at an emergency inquiry at the National Assembly on the 2nd that "this is not true."
Coupang has consistently emphasized that it hires without discrimination based on nationality or race. According to the National Pension Service (NPS), as of this month, Coupang has about 12,203 employees in total. Of these, foreign employees are around 1,000, or about 10%.
However, the share of foreigners is high at L7 and above, which are management ranks such as Head of Team and director. By job category, there are many foreign developers. Analysts say this is the result of actively recruiting talent from global IT corporations such as Amazon, Alibaba and Google.
A former Coupang employee, who requested anonymity, said, "Among foreign leaders, quite a few do not reside in Korea and work remotely from overseas," adding, "It is common to give instructions and receive reports through real-time video conferences."
The investigation into the data leak is ongoing. The police search-and-seizure warrant named a former employee of Chinese nationality as a suspect. The person worked as a developer for Coupang's authentication system and is said to be under suspicion of network intrusion and leaking secrets under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.