Is Coupang's dominance still strong in South Korea?

With the personal information of over 33.7 million users leaked from Coupang, South Korea's largest online retailer, consumers are increasingly turning away from Coupang.
Anxiety is spreading among consumers over the massive personal information leak incident involving Coupang, which is said to be used by everyone. In online communities, there are many posts reporting withdrawal from Coupang.
On the 29th of last month, the company announced that some of Coupang users' names, phone numbers, addresses, and order histories had been leaked. Payment information and login credentials were not included.
The personal information of 33.7 million people is believed to be the largest data leak to date in South Korea. The leak is believed to have started in June of this year, but the company only became aware of the damage after
The incident occurred on the 18th of last month. On the 30th of last month, the company's CEO, Park Dae-jung, apologized, saying, "We deeply apologize to the customers and citizens who were affected," and said that they would do their utmost to prevent a recurrence and to investigate the cause.
The leak incident is not believed to have been the result of hacking, but rather the work of a Chinese former employee. The police have already secured the IP address used by the suspect, and are conducting an investigation to identify the suspect.
However, Yonhap News pointed out that "the former employee is believed to have departed overseas after leaving the company, which could make the investigation difficult."
The South Korean government has launched a joint public-private investigation team to clarify the situation and develop measures to prevent recurrence.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science, ICT and Technology Bae Kyung-hoon said at an emergency ministers' meeting held at the Government Complex Seoul on the 30th of last month, "We will take measures starting today to prevent secondary damage caused by exploiting this accident."
"We will strengthen monitoring for the next three months," he said. In South Korea, where e-commerce is booming, Coupang operates one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the country, and has its own logistics network and rapid
Its strength is its delivery service. In particular, its next-day delivery service known as "Rocket Delivery" is popular with users and is said to be used by almost every household in South Korea.
As soon as the leak incident came to light, the Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo reported, "People are quitting Coupang (quitting their membership) and quitting Kalpan (taking over from Coupang)."
According to the newspaper, an office worker who has been using Coupang's early morning fresh food delivery service "Rocket Fresh" almost every day for the past four years said,
In an interview with the newspaper, the user revealed that he had cancelled his Coupang membership on the 1st of this month. "For the time being, I plan to buy ingredients at the local supermarket and make my lunch every evening. I don't think I'll ever use Coupang again," he said.
" There have also been a series of posts in online communities with attached cancellation certificates. The newspaper reported on the 2nd, "One online community posted a message saying, 'Please recommend an alternative shopping mall.'
"Dozens of posts were posted saying things like, 'I think I've been relying too much on Coupang up until now.'" The Korean media outlet E-Daily also reported that as consumers are cancelling their memberships,
The media outlet reported that the process to cancel is complicated. "You have to go through six steps, including switching from the mobile app to the PC version, before you can finally cancel your membership.
While people are reportedly moving away from Coupang, according to news agency Yonhap News, Coupang's daily wage has fallen by 100% since the information leak was revealed on the 29th of last month.
The number of active users is said to be rapidly increasing. "Among IT industry insiders and experts, there are many consumers who have not suffered direct damage from the leak of personal information, and the convenience of daily life is increasing," Yonhap said.
In addition, global investment bank JP Morgan said in a report published on the 1st (local time) that "Coupang is
"It has a dominant position in the country's e-commerce market, and Korean customers don't seem too concerned about data leaks."
Is the customer defection temporary and limited? However, in the aforementioned Stream article, Yonhap stated that the number of active users on Coupang's website
Regarding the sudden increase in access, the company also said, "Some believe that the increase in access is due to people checking login history for Coupang's website and apps, or checking notifications regarding information leaks."