Despite data leak, Coupang app usage hits record

A Coupang logistics center in Seoul is seen on December 2, after the country’s No. 1 e-commerce company reported a large-scale leak of personal information affecting about 34 million records. / Yonhap News

After Coupang’s massive leak of personal information involving roughly 33.7 million customers, talk of quitting the platform — dubbed “talpang,” a Korean shorthand for leaving Coupang — spread rapidly among consumers. In reality, however, user behavior appears largely unchanged. Coupang’s daily active users (DAU) instead hit an all-time high, underscoring the lack of clear substitute services in the domestic market.

According to data-tech company IGAWorks’ Mobile Index on December 4, Coupang’s DAU on December 1 came to 17.99 million. That figure is about 10 percent higher than the 16-million range recorded between November 22 and 28, and marks the highest level since tracking began. Usage actually increased in the immediate aftermath of the disclosure of the large-scale data breach on the evening of November 29.

Industry watchers say existing Coupang customers remain heavily dependent on services such as Rocket Delivery. At the same time, there was a temporary spike in logins as users checked their login history, changed passwords and conducted other security checks.

Some had predicted that users leaving Coupang would flock to Chinese e-commerce platforms, but traffic on those services remained largely flat. AliExpress’s DAU fell from 1.72 million on November 29 to 1.65 million on December 1, while Temu edged up only slightly from 1.33 million to 1.39 million over the same period. Analysts say suspicions that a former Chinese employee was a key figure behind the breach, as well as growing unease over agreeing to overseas transfers of personal data, may have played a role.

By contrast, traffic to domestic e-commerce platforms generally increased. Over the same period, Gmarket’s DAU rose from 1.37 million to 1.66 million, while 11st climbed from 1.29 million to 1.58 million. SSG.com also saw its traffic grow by around 10 percent.

ⓒ "젊은 파워, 모바일 넘버원 아시아투데이"