A view of a Coupang logistics center in downtown Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The fallout from Coupang Inc.’s massive data breach is beginning to hit small businesses that depend heavily on the platform, with some vendors reporting sharp declines in sales and mounting anxiety about long-term damage, industry officials said Thursday.
Last week, the U.S.-listed e-commerce giant disclosed that the personal information of 33.7 million customers had been compromised—including names, phone numbers, email addresses and delivery details. Given that Coupang’s Product Commerce division counted 24.7 million active users in the third quarter, the breach suggests nearly the entire customer base may have been exposed.
Small merchants are now among the earliest casualties. Several sellers say their sales have dropped by double digits since the incident, and some are considering shifting their operations to competing marketplaces.
“About 70% of our online revenue comes from Coupang, but orders have fallen 30% after the breach,” one business owner wrote in an online sellers’ forum. “This is a direct blow to our livelihood.”
Another merchant reported that “90% of our revenue relies on Coupang,” but traffic has plunged so sharply that even one or two days’ worth of advertising budgets are failing to be used up.
The impact, however, is uneven. Vendors in fashion and beauty—markets with slower purchasing cycles—have so far seen less disruption. Still, industry observers warn that any organized anti-Coupang campaign or broad customer backlash could deepen the damage, given that three-quarters of Coupang’s sellers are small businesses.
As of 2023, Coupang worked with roughly 230,000 small-business partners, generating 12 trillion won (US$8.18 billion) in transactions. According to the company’s 2025 Impact Report, small and mid-sized merchants make up nearly 75% of all sellers on the platform.
The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise urged Coupang to take responsibility: “Coupang must respond decisively before the damage snowballs for small merchants,” an official said.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
