SEOUL, May 7, 2026, 01:02 (KST)
- Coupang posted a first-quarter net loss, pressured by the impact of a data breach on margins and shifting customer trends.
- Shares slid roughly 16.6% in New York late morning, hit by a loss that came in wider than expected.
- Management noted a sharp rebound in WOW membership. Even so, Q2 margins are still seen shrinking.
Coupang Inc. shares took a 16.6% hit to $17.32 in early afternoon trading in New York on Wednesday, pressured by a $266 million net loss for the first quarter. The South Korea-focused e-commerce company blamed higher compensation and network expenses stemming from last year’s data breach for the red ink in the January–March stretch. MarketScreener provided the trading data.
This isn’t just a ding to Coupang’s reputation anymore—the fallout is showing up in margins, customer growth, and legal dockets. Revenue climbed 8% to $8.5 billion, but operating loss widened to $242 million, a sharp reversal from last year’s $154 million in operating income. Legal filings are piling up, and the active-customer count is taking a hit.
Coupang serves as a key gauge for South Korean e-commerce, where fast delivery, sticky loyalty perks, and dense logistics networks drive the competition. New data put Coupang in front of Naver, 11Street, and Gmarket among the country’s leading online shopping sites—meaning a hit to its reputation could ripple well beyond just Coupang.
The company reported gross profit down 1% at $2.3 billion, with gross margin slipping to 27.0%. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $29 million—a 92% plunge—pushing the margin down to a lean 0.3%.
Chief Executive Bom Kim told investors the “vast majority of WOW members never left,” referencing Coupang’s paid membership program. By the end of April, Kim said, Coupang had clawed back nearly 80% of the WOW membership drop that followed the incident. Addressing customer vouchers issued in the aftermath, he described them as “one-time in nature,” noting most of the effect hit Q1, with a smaller carryover into early Q2. MarketScreener
Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Anand reported that Product Commerce active customers rose 2% year-over-year to 23.9 million, though that figure slipped 3% compared to the prior quarter. Anand pinned the quarter-on-quarter drop on lingering fallout from the data incident, noting the active-customer count reflects activity over a three-month window.
Coupang’s core Product Commerce arm—covering its flagship Korean retail and marketplace operations—delivered $7.2 billion in revenue, a 4% climb. Over in Developing Offerings, which spans Taiwan, Coupang Eats, Rocket Now in Japan, streaming, fintech, and Farfetch, revenue jumped 28% to $1.3 billion. But losses deepened here: adjusted EBITDA slipped further, landing at a $329 million deficit.
Anand sees second-quarter revenue climbing 9% to 10% on a constant-currency basis—so, stripping out currency moves. But he warned that adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to drop by roughly 300 to 400 basis points from last year. (One basis point equals one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Company filings reveal the blow wasn’t just about compensating customers. Coupang said the incident pushed cost of sales higher—not only from the compensation program but also from increased supply-chain management expenses. Operating costs ticked up too, with fulfillment, tech, and marketing outlays climbing as the company worked to drive growth despite a slower revenue pace after the incident.
Coupang moved to soften the blow from its earnings miss, snapping up 20.4 million Class A shares for $391 million during the quarter. The board also greenlit another $1 billion for the buyback program.
The way forward is messy. Coupang flagged lawsuits connected to the incident—securities and derivative cases among them—and said it can’t pin down the potential losses on some claims. The company also warned the event might draw heavier scrutiny from Korean authorities and spark fresh investigations, enforcement moves, or more litigation.
Eyes in Korea are on the fallout. KBS noted Coupang booked its first quarterly operating loss in seven quarters. Yonhap pointed out that Coupang Korea accounts for over 90% of group revenue, and the unit has come under fire after news broke about a data breach affecting roughly 33.6 million customers.
