Coupang: The Amazon Of South Korea Makes Waves With Record IPO

In a remarkable turn of events, South Korean e-commerce startup Coupang recently made its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, marking a significant milestone in the world of online retail. It has now become the largest IPO by an Asian company since Alibaba's IPO in 2014. The impressive surge in shares valued founder Bon Kim's stake at over $8.6 billion. On its first day of trading, Coupang's share price shot up by 41%, making it the most significant IPO in the U.S. since Uber in 2019. Dubbed the Amazon of South Korea, Coupang has garnered significant attention, particularly from major investors like SoftBank. In a show of commitment to its workforce, Coupang pledged up to $90 million in shares for its warehouse staff and full-time delivery drivers. The company's revenue doubled in 2020, thanks to the pandemic-driven increase in online shopping.

Bon Kim, the visionary behind Coupang, has an inspiring journey that began in Seoul. Born 42 years ago, he left Korea at the tender age of seven to pursue education in the U.S. He attended Deerfield Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts, where he excelled in both track and wrestling. His academic journey continued at Harvard, where he began his undergraduate studies and pursued an MBA. However, he dropped out six months into the MBA program. Kim's entrepreneurial spirit emerged early as he founded a student magazine called "Current" and interned at "The New Republic." Following a brief stint at the Boston Consulting Group, he raised $4 million to launch a magazine called "02138," which unfortunately shut down in 2009. Nevertheless, he founded Coupang in 2010 and has since raised an astonishing $3.8 billion from prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms, including SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, and BlackRock.

Initially starting as a Groupon clone, Coupang quickly evolved into a leading online retailer featuring a 24-hour logistics service called Rocket Delivery. As of 2019, Coupang boasted over 3.5 million daily active users and employed around 10,000 people across its offices in cities like Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Over the past 11 years, Coupang has aggressively expanded its delivery operations. Approximately 70% of South Korea's 51 million residents live within a seven-mile radius of a Coupang distribution center. Recently, Coupang has ventured into streaming services and food delivery, with services like Dawn Delivery allowing orders as late as midnight, ensuring delivery by 7 am. Coupang Fresh delivers organic and perishable food items quickly, while Coupang Eats serves as the company's food delivery service.

Today, Coupang stands as the fastest-growing e-commerce company in South Korea, and it closely resembles what Amazon represents for other parts of the world. Its remarkable growth and innovation have significantly influenced the e-commerce landscape in South Korea, particularly in the absence of Amazon's direct presence in the country, making Coupang a pivotal player in the market.