Coupang turns to loss in Q1 amid backlash from data breach incident

(Yonhap)

Coupang Inc., South Korean e-commerce giant listed on the New York Stock Exchange, swung to an operating loss in the first quarter of 2026, as one-time compensation costs following a data breach incident weighed on the company.

Coupang announced on Tuesday, local time, that it posted an operating loss of 354.5 billion won ($242 million) for the January-March period, its first quarterly loss since 2024 and its largest loss in over four years.

Sales rose 8 percent on year to 12.46 trillion won, marking the first time the company has recorded single-digit quarterly growth since its initial public offering in 2021..

The move into the red was largely driven by a 17 percent surge in selling, general, and administrative expenses. Profitability was specifically hampered by a large-scale compensation program that issued purchase vouchers to users following a personal data breach last November.

During an earnings call on Tuesday, Coupang Chairman Bom Kim characterized the voucher costs as a “largely one-time event” that would mostly be confined to the first quarter.

Performance in the company’s core Product Commerce segment, which includes its signature Rocket Delivery service, saw revenue growth taper to just 4 percent to reach 10.51 trillion won.

Customer metrics also showed signs of softening - while the number of active customers rose 2 percent on year to 23.9 million, the figure represented a 700,000-user decline from the previous quarter.

The Developing Offerings segment, in the meantime, comprising its Taiwan operations, Coupang Eats, and Japan’s Rocket Now, remained a growth engine, with sales jumping 28 percent to 1.9 trillion won.

Kim noted that the company’s proprietary last-mile delivery network in Taiwan now covers the majority of its volume in that market.

Despite the earnings hit, Coupang’s board recently approved an additional $1 billion share repurchase program. The company repurchased 20.4 million shares for $391 million during the first quarter as part of its broader capital allocation strategy.