CEO of Coupang, Bom Kim, with a very appropriate smile on his face

As reported by Coupang's President Bom Kim, his four year old ecommerce company has surpassed monthly turnover of 200 billion won (a little shy of $200 million USD).

While the comapny started life as a daily deals site, it rapidly became an ecommerce focused enterprise, escaping the global downturn in daily deals that put market leader Groupon into major trouble this year. Kim now sees his largest rival as Amazon, which is yet to enter the Korean market.

The company has achieved this growth at a surprising rate. Its monthly turnover exceeded 100 billion won (US$90.7 million) in June last year, and the figure has doubled in just a year and 5 months.

Coupang provides fast delivery services on infant and children goods, household goods, pet goods, and food. In particular, sales of these products increased more than 10 times compared to the same period last year, a steep rise.

Coupang's monthly profits since August 2010 have grown exponentially.

Turnover in the fashion and beauty range increased about 45% compared with last year, and Coupang currently sells an around 80 clothing brands including Bean Pole Outdoor, NEPA and Moose Knuckles.

Coupang has rapidly increased the variety of merchandise it offers and the company has seen ratings soar since it introduced its own “Rocket delivery” and “Coupang men” services, which allow consumers to get their products quickly and safely.

The company’s performance have been in a steep upward trend, and merchants in its marketplace have seen sales growth 'go viral' after they feature their products on Coupang. As a result he number of inquiries for listing on the platform have increased by 150%. Indeed, the number of new merchants in November grew by more than 70% compared to the previous month.

Coupang is currently offering a variety of special events for the festive season, providing up to 80% discounts on clothing, a discount coupon on fashion, accessories and beauty products, and a “golden deal” which gives additional discounts on selected items.

Kim Soo-hyun, director of the Curation Division, said, “Based on the clear growth in performance of the company, more and more merchants are becoming interested in Coupang as a major distribution channel.”

Coupang had previously raised US$300 million in an investment led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, on Dec. 11. The figure is the largest investment in the history of Korea’s unlisted IT and e-commerce industries.

This story was first reported on Business Korea

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