'Icheon Deokpyeong Logistics Center Fire', 'Controversy of Founder Kim Beom seok's evasion of responsibility', 'Labor claims against employees' ', etc., are various tags attached to Coupang recently.
Coupang, which entered the New York Stock Exchange in April of last year and has been winning and winning by exceeding 100 trillion won in market capitalization, seems to have met a reef due to the controversy that erupted at the same time.
Since various top news articles were decorated as bad news, most companies have to close their doors if there is such a controversy, but Coupang is aiming for a rebound with its strong fandom of consumer convenience as a weapon.
According to the company on the 16th, Coupang started to break through the crisis head-on with ‘Coupang Eats Mart’, which delivers products to customers’ homes in the shortest time through the micro fulfillment center, a small logistics center in the region. In response, the distribution industry is interpreting that Coupang's counterattack has begun with the spread of Corona 19. It is analyzed that the 4th COVID-19 pandemic, which gave a fatal blow to the self-employed, and the strengthened distancing are working as good news for Coupang.
Coupang Eats Mart, which is currently being piloted in some areas of Seoul, is a service that delivers daily necessities that consumers want within 15 minutes of ordering in the non-face-to-face era. Baedal Minjok challenged the similar service B Mart and participated in the so-called quick commerce competition.
The big hurdle that Coupang, which is expected to perform well in the quick commerce market, must overcome is the backlash from the convenience store industry. Convenience stores across the country are nervous about Coupang's entry into the alleys, which has a huge capital. Convenience stores have been struggling with sales declines and minimum wage hikes due to COVID-19.
The convenience store industry also issued a statement in September of last year and collectively protested that Baedal Minjok and Yogiyo infringed on alley commercial rights through B-Mart and Yo-Mart, respectively.
If the opposition from the convenience store industry becomes a reality, it is interesting to see what kind of win-win solution Coupang will come up with.
In fact, Coupang has come up with a win-win solution whenever a negative issue arises in the company. Regarding the fire at the Deokpyeong Logistics Center, Coupang Co-CEO Dae-Jun Park met with National Power Representative Song Seok-Jun on the 13th to discuss the situation of receiving damage from Icheon citizens and future compensation plans, etc.
The number of users is recovering thanks to Coupang's sincere steps that turn crisis into opportunity. Coupang's daily active users, which used to be over 10 million, fell below 8 million after the fire at the Deokpyeong logistics center, but has recently risen to 9.6 million.
Meanwhile, Japan's SoftBank Group Chairman Son Jeong-eui, who has made a large scale investment in Coupang, is also attracting attention in the venture capital (VC) industry recently.
This is because the Vision Fund, led by Chairman Son, decided to invest 2 trillion won in Yanolja, the No. 1 travel platform in Korea. Vision Fund has already invested more than 3 trillion won in Coupang and had great fun when Coupang went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
If Yanolja succeeds in entering the U.S. stock market by 2023 as planned, then Chairman Son will hit the jackpot in succession through domestic companies with Japanese capital.
