Seoul: The fallout from e-commerce giant Coupang Inc.'s data breach is increasingly spreading to small businesses that heavily rely on the platform for sales, industry sources said Thursday. Last week, the U.S.-listed company said the personal information of 33.7 million customers had been compromised, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and delivery information.
According to Yonhap News Agency, given that active users in Coupang's Product Commerce division -- which includes its delivery service -- reached 24.7 million in the third quarter, the scale of the leak suggests that nearly the entire user base may have been affected. As a result, some sellers on Coupang's platform have already reported double-digit declines in sales, while others said they are considering shifting to alternative marketplaces.
One small business owner wrote in an online community, "About 70 percent of our online sales come from Coupang, but orders have fallen by 30 percent since the data breach. This incident is a direct blow to sellers' livelihoods." Another seller said, "90 percent of our revenue comes from Coupang, but sales have sharply declined since the incident," adding that traffic has dropped so steeply that even one or two days' worth of ad spending is no longer fully consumed.
Industry impacts appear to vary by sector. Sellers in fashion and cosmetics have not yet experienced significant sales declines, reflecting the relatively long purchase cycles in those markets. An anti-Coupang campaign or a mass customer exodus could further worsen conditions for these merchants, as three out of four sellers on Coupang are small businesses.
As of 2023, Coupang worked with about 230,000 small-business partners, with transaction volumes reaching 12 trillion won (US$8.18 billion). Coupang's 2025 Impact Report showed that small and medium-sized sellers account for roughly 75 percent of all merchants on the platform. An official from the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise urged Coupang to "demonstrate accountability before the damage to small businesses snowballs."