Competition is fierce in Korea's e-commerce industry to win back so-called "Talpang" customers who left Coupang. The e-commerce industry is watching Viva Republica (Toss) as a rising follower to succeed the information technology (IT) corporations Naver (NAVER).
Toss is aggressively expanding its commerce (shopping) institutional sector as it grows its simple-payment pay business. It is a move similar to Naver, which expanded its e-commerce influence on the back of Naver Pay.
According to related industries on the 7th, the financial application (app) Toss has recently focused on fostering its shopping institutional sector. Declaring last year as the first year of commerce, Toss hired a large number of experienced workers from online and offline retailers and aggressively recruited sellers by touting fast settlements. The shopping tab, which previously had to be accessed through Toss Pay, was placed at the center of Toss's home screen, and a brand hall was also created.
In the second half of last year, Toss carried out hiring in the triple digits across all positions in the shopping institutional sector. In particular, it sharply increased MDs (merchandisers), whom it calls sales specialists. When shopping launched in 2023, there were around 10 people; by the end of September last year, that had expanded to around 200. Continued hiring afterward is estimated to have brought the total to about 500 by the end of last year.
A department store official said, "For a while, there were many cases of people moving to Naver's shopping institutional sector, but these days Toss is aggressively absorbing talent," and added, "There are also many cases of people moving from e-commerce companies to Toss." The official added, "Kakao Shopping was sometimes mentioned as a strong competitor to Naver, but as (Kakao) focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), shopping has been pushed down the priority list."
Toss Shopping began as a group-buying service when it first launched in 2023, but from the following year it shifted its business direction to an open-market service. This is a model in which sellers register and sell products directly. As a result of promoting fast settlements and advertising support, the number of sellers that joined Toss Shopping increased to around 70,000 by the end of last year. Categories are diverse, from food, household goods, beauty, and fashion to travel products.
After the large-scale personal information leak at Coupang late last year, there is speculation that the increase in Talpang customers will change the landscape of the e-commerce industry. Existing online and offline retailers long seen as Coupang's main competitors are wary that emerging powerhouse Toss could bulk up as they seek to capture the Talpang windfall.
They are particularly wary that users who mainly use Toss, especially those in their teens and 30s, could become potential shopping customers. Toss's cumulative users surpassed 30 million last year, up from 20 million in 2021. By age group, sign-up rates are high among those in their 20s and 30s: about 95% (5.54 million) of people in their 20s and about 87% (5.8 million) of people in their 30s signed up for Toss. Teen users who use Toss top 3 million.
Although Coupang still maintains a dominant lead, its number of users is slowly decreasing. According to the app and payment data analysis corporations Wiseapp Retail, during Dec. 22–28, 2025, Coupang's weekly active users (WAU) were 27,716,655, down 5.8% from a month earlier. Its daily active users (DAU), which exceeded 16 million in November last year, also fell to the 14 million range late last month.
During the same period, users of major e-commerce platforms increased instead. Naver Plus Store's WAU was 3,818,844, up 10.4%, and 11Street's was 3,691,625, up 1.6%. The Naver Plus Store app ranked No. 1 in new installations in the shopping institutional sector in Mobile Index's tally for Dec. 8–28 last year.
Moves targeting Talpang customers have also gone into full swing. Companies are distributing discount coupons and bolstering delivery and membership benefits. Naver is strengthening fresh-food delivery by partnering with Kurly and Lotte Mart. Gmarket has enhanced its weekend delivery guarantee service, and SSG.com, part of the Shinsegae group, will soon unveil a new membership and strengthen its fast delivery service.