Coupang's payment amount and number of users, which had raised concerns about consumer churn after the personal data leak, recovered to the highest level in half a year. In contrast, the payment amounts of homegrown e-commerce platforms such as Gmarket and 11Street fell compared with before the leak.
According to Mobile Index by IGAworks, an artificial intelligence (AI) data tech corporations, on the 5th, last month's estimated credit and debit card payment amount at Coupang totaled 4.8337 trillion won. That is about 360.1 billion won more than the 4.4735 trillion won in Nov. last year, when the personal data leak surfaced. It increased by 496.3 billion won compared with 4.3373 trillion won in Dec. last year.
Coupang's payment amount fell to 4.0219 trillion won in Feb. this year but has been recovering since. It was 4.8596 trillion won in May and 4.8337 trillion won in June, marking the 4.8 trillion won range for two consecutive months.
The number of users also increased. Last month, Coupang's monthly active users (MAU) stood at 35,091,710, up 109,048 from the previous month. Compared with 34,420,207 in Nov. last year, when the personal data leak surfaced, it increased by more than 671,500.
Right after the personal data leak, a so-called "talpang," meaning quitting membership, movement appeared among some consumers, but it seems that in actual purchasing, Coupang was not easy to replace. As Rocket Delivery and dawn delivery took root as everyday consumption for grocery shopping and daily necessities, user churn did not persist long term.
During the same period, homegrown e-commerce platforms such as Gmarket and 11Street performed relatively weakly. Gmarket's estimated credit and debit card payment amount last month was 283.7 billion won, down 34.2% from 431 billion won the previous month. It also fell 33.7% compared with 427.8 billion won in Nov. last year. 11Street's payment amount last month was 270.9 billion won, up 4.0% from the previous month, but down 22.4% from 348.9 billion won in Nov. last year.
There is an interpretation that as the domestic e-commerce market has been reorganized around not only price competitiveness but also delivery speed, membership benefits, product selection, and convenience for repeat purchases, a tilt toward Coupang has continued. In particular, among dual-income households and office workers, dawn delivery, fast returns, and membership benefits have taken root like basic infrastructure for everyday consumption.
However, some say the burden of the personal data leak has not completely disappeared. As controversy continues over the scale of the leak damage and responsibility for responding to the incident, there remains a possibility that distrust among consumers sensitive to personal data protection could flare up again.
Meanwhile, these payment figures are estimates of credit and debit card transactions confirmed through an AI algorithm and do not include Naver Plus Store payment data.