Estimated credit and debit card payments on Coupang reached 4.930 trillion won in August, up 12.6 percent from 4.378 trillion won a year earlier, according to Mobile Index operated by AI data technology company IGAWorks Wednesday.
The figure remained close to the 5 trillion-won mark after payments hit 5.094 trillion won ($3.8 billion) in July, up 5.4 percent from 4.834 trillion won in June and the highest monthly level recorded since the data breach.
Coupang's estimated card payments had fallen as low as 4.022 trillion won in February but have since steadily recovered.
User base has also continued to expand. Monthly active users of the Coupang app reached 35.95 million in August, up about 510,000 from 35.44 million in July.
The figure was also well above the 34.38 million users recorded in October last year, before the personal-data leak became public.
The numbers suggest that the consumer backlash that followed the breach has had little lasting impact on actual shopping behavior.
Coupang has built much of its hold on consumers around Rocket Delivery and dawn delivery, which have turned groceries, household goods and other everyday purchases into recurring transactions.
Its Wow paid membership adds another layer of lock-in through delivery and other benefits, making it more difficult for regular users to shift their spending elsewhere.
Domestic rivals have also struggled to offer comparable delivery coverage, product selection and purchasing convenience. The gap is increasingly visible.
Coupang's 35.95 million MAUs in August were nearly four times the 9.04 million recorded by Naver Plus Store, Naver's separate shopping app.
Gmarket's estimated card payments fell 25.9 percent from a year earlier to 247.7 billion won in August, while 11st's dropped 3.1 percent to 241.4 billion won.
Coupang's August payments were about 10.1 times the combined amount spent at the two platforms.
The payment figures are estimates generated by IGAWorks using credit- and debit-card data and AI algorithms and may differ from Coupang's actual sales.
Naver Plus Store payment data were not included in the comparison.
AJP Takeaways
- Coupang’s estimated card payments reached 4.93 trillion won in August, up 12.6 percent from a year earlier, after topping 5 trillion won in July.
- 1Monthly active users rose to 35.95 million in August, exceeding levels seen before the data breach and suggesting little lasting consumer exodus.
- Fast delivery, recurring purchases and Wow membership benefits appear to have outweighed privacy concerns, while rivals Gmarket and 11st continued to lose ground.
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