A photo of Coupang Inc.’s fulfillment center in Daegu, about 240 kilometers southeast of Seoul, provided by the company.
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Coupang Inc. said Wednesday it swung to a net profit in the second quarter from a year earlier on improved profitability of its flagship product commerce business.
South Korea’s top e-commerce retailer shifted to a net profit of US$145.2 million in the April-June period from a net loss of $75.5 million during the same period last year, the New York Stock Exchange-listed company said.
This marks the fourth consecutive quarter for Coupang to post a profit, following its first-ever quarterly net profit in the July-September period last year.
The e-commerce giant logged sales of $5.8 billion in the second quarter, up 16 percent on-year on a reported basis, and operating income of $1.5 billion, up 32 percent on-year.
Coupang’s active customers exceeded 19 million for the second consecutive quarter, according to the company. Per-customer sales averaged $296.
By business, the net revenue of its product commerce division increased 16 percent on-year to $5.7 billion.
Net revenue of new business areas, including the food delivery service Coupang Eats and the video streaming service Coupang Play, as well as international and fintech businesses, was down 2 percent on-year to $156.3 million.
“Our active customer growth accelerated while we continued to deliver record profitability, highlighted by a 7.2 percent adjusted EBITDA margin in our product commerce segment,” said Gaurav Anand, Coupang’s CFO, referring to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Anand said Coupang has more room to grow as the company only has a “single-digit share of a massive retail market,” referring to the South Korean market.
Coupang made its landmark debut on the New York stock market in 2021 in an effort to expand its global presence.
In 2021 and 2022, the e-commerce titan failed to post a yearly profit, reporting net losses of $1.5 billion and $92 million, respectively.
(Yonhap)
