Coupang’s Daily Active Users Drop to 14 Million After Data Breach

Coupang, the e-commerce giant, has seen a decline in its daily active user count to around 14 million following a significant data breach that was disclosed last month. According to industry data from MobileIndex, operated by IGAWorks, Coupang’s estimated daily active users were at 14.88 million as of Friday. This marks the first time the daily user count has fallen into the 14 million range since October 25, when it was recorded at 14.91 million users.
Over a period of approximately three months from early October to Friday, Coupang’s daily user count dropped below 15 million only on three occasions – during the Chuseok holiday period from October 4-6, on October 25, and on December 19. On November 29, Coupang confirmed that personal information from 33.7 million customer accounts had been exposed, surpassing the initial report of 4,500 accounts made to authorities on November 20. This number of affected accounts is nearly two-thirds of South Korea’s population.
Considering that the active users of Coupang’s Product Commerce division, which includes its delivery service, reached 24.7 million in the third quarter, the scale of the breach indicates that almost the entire user base might have been impacted. The compromised data included users’ names, phone numbers, email addresses, and delivery addresses.
Following the data breach disclosure, Coupang’s daily active users experienced a temporary surge, peaking in the 17 million range from November 30 to December 3 and reaching an all-time high of 17.98 million on December 1 as users accessed the platform to review their accounts and security settings. However, since December 10, the figure has gradually decreased back to the mid-15 million range, indicating a downward trend.
In response to the incident, the ruling Democratic Party announced plans to conduct a joint parliamentary hearing involving five standing committees on December 30 and 31 to address the data breach.