Since the massive personal data leak at Coupang in late Nov. last year, the so‑called "Tal‑pang (leaving Coupang)" phenomenon has begun to show up in the results and user metrics of rival e‑commerce companies. In particular, Naver and Kurly, which began collaborating last year through "Kurly N Mart," are seen as reaping the clearest windfall, with both revenue and users increasing.
According to the e‑commerce industry on the 5th, Kurly posted revenue of 629 billion won and operating profit of 3.9 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year. Revenue rose 11.6% from a year earlier, and operating profit increased by 9.4 billion won, swinging to a profit.
Kurly's cumulative results last year came to revenue of 2.3671 trillion won and operating profit of 13.1 billion won. Revenue grew 7.8% from a year earlier, and operating profit increased by 31.4 billion won, turning to a profit. During the same period, gross merchandise value (GMV) was 3.534 trillion won, up 13.5% year over year.
Kurly's transaction amount growth rate exceeded 10% for four straight quarters last year. In particular, fourth‑quarter transaction amount, when the Coupang data leak erupted, jumped 16.2% from a year earlier, the highest growth rate in the past three years.
Naver also showed steep growth in its commerce business. Naver's commerce revenue in the fourth quarter of last year totaled 1.054 trillion won, up 36% from a year earlier. That was the highest growth rate among Naver's major businesses, including the search platform, Fintech, content, and enterprise.
Naver's cumulative commerce revenue last year was 3.6884 trillion won, up 26.2% from a year earlier. During the same period, the growth rate of transaction amount on Naver Smart Store was about 10%.
Kurly and Naver began collaborating in September last year by onboarding the Kurly platform onto Naver Smart Store. The industry expected Kurly to use Naver's vast user base to broaden its customer pool, while Naver could shore up competitiveness in fresh groceries, long seen as a weakness.
The results of the two companies' collaboration are showing up not only in earnings but also in user numbers. In particular, signs point to a large influx of Tal‑pang users after the Coupang data leak in November last year.
According to WiseApp Retail, last month the monthly active users (MAU) of Naver's shopping‑specialized application "Naver Plus Store" totaled 7,507,066, up 5.9% from the previous month. In November last year, just before the Coupang leak became known, MAU stood at 5,777,814, meaning it grew by about 1.73 million in three months.
By contrast, Coupang's MAU last month was 33,123,043, down 0.2% from the previous month. Coupang's MAU in November last year was 34,398,407, but it fell by about 1.28 million over the three months after the data leak.
Kurly's paid membership "Kurly Members" is also growing. Membership rose from 1 million at the start of last year to more than 1.4 million by year‑end. Notably, there was a net increase of more than 200,000 in December alone, right after the Coupang data leak, which is seen as the result of a large influx of Tal‑pang users.
Meanwhile, Coupang posted fourth‑quarter revenue of 12.8103 trillion won and operating profit of 11.5 billion won last year. Revenue rose 11% from a year earlier, but operating profit fell 97%. The data leak slowed revenue growth and reduced active customers.
Coupang expects first‑quarter revenue growth this year of 5% to 10%. However, as first‑quarter results reflect spending of coupons worth 50,000 won provided to members as compensation, some analysts say profitability could fall further.
Other e‑commerce companies, excluding Kurly and Naver, appear to have seen little windfall from the Coupang incident. SSG.com's fourth‑quarter revenue last year was 321.1 billion won, down 14.7% from a year earlier, and its operating loss widened by 1.2 billion won to 26.5 billion won. Lotte ON also saw fourth‑quarter revenue fall 10.9% year over year to 31.5 billion won. During the same period, its operating loss narrowed by 4.2 billion won to 2.8 billion won.
An industry official said, "Kurly and Naver had already strengthened service competitiveness and established themselves as alternative platforms before the Coupang incident, while other companies were somewhat slow to respond," adding, "With moves across the industry to match Coupang‑level competitiveness, there is a possibility that earnings improvement will become visible from the first quarter."