Seoul, Aug 5 (IANS) E-commerce giant Coupang said on Wednesday it swung to a net loss in the second quarter from a year earlier due to fines related to a massive data breach.
In the three months that ended in June, the U.S.-listed company shifted to a net loss of 865 billion won (US$570 million) from a net profit of 43.5 billion won in the same period last year, it said in a press release.
Coupang, which generates most of its revenue from its Korean operations, has faced strong public backlash following the disclosure of a data breach in November 2025 involving more than 37 million customers, reports Yonhap news agency.
In June, the Personal Information Protection Commission imposed a record fine of 624.7 billion won over the data breach and the collection of users’ online activity without their consent.
Sales in the Product Commerce segment, its core online shopping business, rose 1 percent from a year earlier to $7.42 billion in the second quarter.
Revenue from the Developing Offerings segment, which includes its Taiwan business and food delivery service Coupang Eats, increased 20 percent from a year earlier to $1.43 billion during the period.
The number of active Product Commerce customers rose 3 percent from the same period in 2025 to 24.7 million.
Coupang said it repurchased $459 million worth of shares in the second quarter after its board approved a $1 billion stock buyback program in the previous quarter.
The company also swung to an operating loss of 835 billion won in the second quarter from an operating profit of 209.3 billion won a year earlier.
Sales rose 4 percent to 13.3 trillion won from 11.97 trillion won a year earlier.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s fair trade watchdog vowed to impose fines on conglomerate heads when their business groups omit affiliates from regulatory filings to avoid antitrust rules.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) unveiled the plan in a report submitted for a policy briefing to President Lee Jae Myung earlier in the day, along with other policy initiatives, including measures to tackle price rigging.
—IANS
na/
