Coupang Chairman Kim Beom-seok says three consecutive quarters of deficit are “temporary headwinds, not structural issues”

Coupang Inc Chairman Kim Beom-seok said that the poor performance in the third quarter was due to a temporary cost burden, and maintained the existing forecast that the margins of the product commerce division will be close to the pre-accident level next year.

In a conference call held after the third quarter performance announcement on the 3rd (local time), Chairman Kim cited factors affecting product commerce margins as supply chain disruptions, fixed cost burden due to delayed demand recovery, and increased marketing costs to bring back lost customers.

“None of these items are structural issues,” he said. “Some are short-term investments chosen by the company and others are temporary headwinds.”

Chairman Kim predicted that when supply recovers, supply chain disruptions will normalize, volume-based cost reduction effects, and logistics facility operation rates will improve. He added that marketing costs have already begun to decrease.

Coupang Inc's sales in the third quarter of this year were KRW 14.2209 trillion, an 11% increase compared to the same period last year, but it recorded an operating loss of KRW 642.3 billion, recording a deficit for three consecutive quarters since the personal information leak incident at the end of last year.

The cumulative operating loss in the first to third quarters of this year is KRW 1.8318 trillion, which is close to the combined operating profit (KRW 1.8987 trillion) for the three years from 2023 to 2025, when Coupang Inc recorded an annual surplus.

Chairman Kim announced that in the long term, he will increase the level of customer service through process improvement and automation of the logistics network while lowering service costs.

This quarter, the company also announced that it has begun work to reduce manual scanning by introducing artificial intelligence (AI) cameras to packaging workstations.