Seoul: U.S.-listed e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. announced on Friday that it achieved record-breaking annual sales last year, even as it grappled with the fallout from a significant data breach. The company's founder, Kim Bom-suk, offered a personal apology for the incident for the first time.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Coupang's annual sales rose to 49.11 trillion won (US$34.3 billion) in 2025, marking an 18.9 percent increase from the previous year. The company's net income more than tripled to 303 billion won from 94 billion won, while operating profit increased by 12.7 percent year-on-year to 679 billion won.
The impressive financial performance occurred despite a data breach that initially was thought to have affected only 3,000 user accounts but was later found to impact over 33.6 million accounts following a joint public-private investigation.
Kim Bom-suk, who serves as founder and board chairman of Coupang, expressed his regret over the incident during an earnings call, marking his first verbal apology. "Everything we have built at Coupang has been driven by a single focus: wowing our customers. Our customers are the only reason we exist, and earning their trust is something we strive to do every single day," Kim stated. He acknowledged the failure to meet customer expectations and emphasized the company's commitment to improving.
Previously, Kim had issued a written apology in December addressing the data breach.
In the fourth quarter, Coupang's sales climbed 15 percent to 12.81 trillion won compared to 11.11 trillion won in the same period the previous year. However, its operating profit dropped 97 percent year-on-year to 11.5 billion won, potentially due to a compensation package of 50,000 won per user related to the data breach. The company also reported a net loss of 37.7 billion won for the fourth quarter, a reversal from a net profit of 182.7 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2024.