The Korean e-commerce market has now clearly reorganized into a three-way battle between Coupang, Naver, and Yanggang, with product strategies evolving to maximize their respective strengths, and head-to-head battles taking place in all areas of distribution, technology, and global strategy.
Coupang is bolstering its profitability by expanding into luxury with a robust fulfillment infrastructure, while Naver is expanding distribution through alliances with external partners, using its AI recommendation technology and vast data as a weapon.
Both companies are trying to expand in global markets in different ways. In this article, we'll take a look at how Coupang and Naver are developing their commerce offerings in the face of fierce competition.
In 2025, Coupang is pursuing an aggressive logistics expansion strategy with the core goal of achieving 'Kusegwon 100%' in the domestic distribution market. 'Kusegwon' is a term that refers to the area where rocket delivery is possible, and Coupang is expanding its fulfillment infrastructure to enable rocket delivery anywhere in the country. We are building logistics centers based on AI and robot automation in major bases such as Gwangju Advanced, Daegu Dalseong, and Cheonan to maximize delivery efficiency, and in particular, the Gwangju center has introduced an automatic temperature and humidity control system to enable stable distribution of fresh food, health food, and daily necessities.
This state-of-the-art logistics infrastructure is a key differentiator for Coupang, which operates a wide range of distribution networks, from small and medium-sized merchants to private label (PB) products and dropshipping. Coupled with AI-based demand forecasting and delivery route optimization technology, Coupang has significantly increased operational efficiency, which has had a positive impact on operating profit.
In 2025, Coupang's luxury shopping strategy revolves around a specialized luxury beauty and fashion service called R.LUX and a collaboration with global luxury platform Farfetch.
The service combines rocket shipping and luxury, offering consumers fast delivery and a curated selection of luxury goods, and has won global design awards for design and user experience (UX), creating a differentiated shopping experience.
In collaboration with Papercheap, we offer more than 1,400 global luxury brands, including Dolce & Gabbana and Ferragamo, as well as popular Korean designer brands, and enhance the high-end shopping experience for Coupang Wow members with personalized 1:1 consultation services and a strict authenticity management system. Coupang is facing the challenge of having a low-cost image, but by entering the luxury market, the company is aiming to increase unit prices and improve operating margins, and is expanding its business into luxury goods and premium beauty.
In 2025, Coupang is focusing on expanding rocket delivery in Taiwan, establishing same-day and next-day delivery in major cities, expanding its logistics centers and delivery camps to New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, and enhancing delivery quality through the use of directly employed delivery workers called Coupang Friends. AI-based automation systems and the establishment of a third logistics center are underway, and we have increased our annual investment by more than KRW 300 billion.
In terms of performance, in Q2 2025, our Taiwan business revenue grew by 541 TP3T quarter-over-quarter and the number of customers grew by 401 TP3T, a ninefold jump in two and a half years. We have enhanced our Wow membership benefits to offer free shipping with no quantity or price restrictions, and we have gained consumer loyalty with faster delivery than traditional Taiwanese e-commerce. This strategy of logistics infrastructure, delivery innovation, and membership expansion has significantly increased our market share and Rocket Delivery brand value in Taiwan.
In January 2025, Coupang re-entered the Japanese market with a food delivery service called RocketNow. Unlike previous attempts at quick commerce (instant delivery), Coupang chose a rider-centric delivery app strategy instead of investing in large-scale logistics, and quickly expanded its service area across Tokyo and the Kanto region after piloting in key areas such as Minato-ku, Tokyo. Within six months of launching, the number of service areas grew from three to more than 10, and local hiring and infrastructure expansion began in earnest to increase its presence in the industry.
While the Japanese delivery app market is a mature market dominated by Uber Eats and Demaekan, Coupang has been implementing a differentiated strategy by offering fast delivery, free delivery promotions, and expanding its localized food categories. While share and performance figures are still limited, the company has been successful in gaining traction and awareness during the first half of 2025. The Japanese business is an experimental attempt to position itself as a quick delivery model instead of a "rocket delivery" model.
In 2025, the Korean e-commerce market is being dominated by Coupang, and Naver is fighting back with a multi-faceted alliance strategy. Instead of competing alone, NAVER is building an "anti-Coupang coalition" by forging strategic alliances with industry powerhouses.
The most high-profile partnership is with global content platform Netflix. By combining Naver Plus membership with a Netflix subscription, the company aims to lock in users based on content, a move that strengthens its global content competitiveness that Coupang lacks.
In the fresh food sector, we are working with Curly to launch Curly N Mart and jointly operate early morning delivery. Curly's logistics subsidiary, Curly Nextmile, joined the NAVER Fulfillment Alliance (NFA) to support the logistics of NAVER sellers.
Cooperation with CJ Logistics has also been strengthened. Based on the existing equity exchange relationship, we have secured logistics infrastructure and delivery speed competitiveness to respond to Coupang's rocket delivery.
In offline retail, we collaborated with Lotte Retail Group to enhance NAVER Pay integration, offline store promotions, and real-time delivery services. Lotte Mart and Lotte Super products can be ordered on the NAVER app through the 'Deliver Now' service.
We're also expanding our mobility membership offerings through a partnership with Uber One, expanding our reach in areas where we don't have a presence.
In 2025, NAVER Shopping is revolutionizing the personalized shopping experience with an AI-powered hyper-personalization strategy. We launched an AI shopping app called NAVER Plus Store, which uses our in-house developed AI algorithm, AiTEMS, to deeply analyze users' purchase history, behavior patterns, and preferences to recommend personalized products, offers, and content. This enables users to go beyond simple search and discover products and information optimized for them, while merchants can effectively reach their target audience.
Plus Store uses AI shopping guides to suggest products by understanding the intentions and context behind the user's input, and links to relevant reviews, blogs, videos, and other content to help support purchase decisions. It also offers a choice of delivery timing, with options such as 'Ship Now (within 1 hour)', 'Early Bird', and 'Delivery on your preferred day' to fit your schedule.
NAVER's 'Discover' tab in 2025 is a key feature of a new shopping experience centered around exploratory shopping. Rather than searching for specific products directly, the Discover tab at the bottom of the app is designed to help customers discover and purchase products naturally by enjoying 30-second short-form video content of the latest trends and popular products.
The "Discover" tab is a separate tab in the NAVER Plus Store app that features an endless feed of products in various categories and smartly curated short-form content to increase user dwell time and conversion rates. NAVER applies AI-based hyper-personalized recommendation algorithms to analyze users' purchase history, behavior patterns, images, and text to recommend the most appropriate content and products.
This is a cultural shift from traditional search-centered shopping to content-based navigation centered on the Discover tab, which gives users the freedom to shop as they would in a department store. NAVER is also expanding opportunities for small and medium-sized brands by making their brand stories and products more visible to consumers through the Discover tab.
NAVER is expanding its presence in Europe with the acquisition of a 70.51 TP3T stake in Wallapop, a leading Spanish second-hand trading platform. The investment is valued at approximately €377 million, making NAVER the largest shareholder in Wallapop. Wallapop will continue to operate independently, but will incorporate NAVER's search technology, AI recommendations, and easy payment system to provide a more sophisticated commerce experience for local users.
Poshmark, a US fashion resale platform acquired by NAVER in 2023, is also undergoing a transformation. It recently introduced a 'Promoted Closet' feature that allows sellers to pay to have their products featured at the top of the list. The feature has seen positive results in beta testing, with sales increasing by 431 TP3T. NAVER is also integrating AI recommendation technology and live commerce features to increase the satisfaction of North American users.
The global user data obtained through Wallapop and Poshmark is in turn used to improve the recommendation algorithms and personalization services of NAVER's own commerce system. In this way, NAVER is building a structure that circulates technology and data between its Korean and overseas platforms.
Coupang and Naver are expanding their commerce markets in different ways.
Coupang has adopted a vertically integrated strategy that integrates its logistics network and services, and is building AI-based automated logistics centers across the country to enhance rocket delivery, with the goal of achieving 1001 TP3T.
NAVER, on the other hand, operates a competitive delivery service without direct logistics through distribution and logistics partnerships with CJ Logistics, Curly, Lotte, and others.
In terms of membership strategy, Coupang centers its Wow membership around its own ecosystem (delivery, content, and discounts), while Naver is expanding the scope of its benefits by partnering with external services such as Netflix and Uber.
Their global strategies are also distinctly different. While Coupang is entering Asia directly, Naver is acquiring local platforms such as Poshmark in the US and Wallapop in Spain to enter global markets and utilize their data for AI technology and domestic services.
The difference between Coupang and Naver in the commerce market is evident in the way they use AI. Coupang's focus on AI is on demand forecasting and inventory optimization to increase profitability of its fulfillment base, and it has recently expanded into the high-margin luxury category to increase spending by existing customers.
Naver, on the other hand, is focusing on hyper-personalized recommendations using search and content-based data, and connecting short-form content and communities to enrich the user's shopping experience. This is a data and technology-driven consumer experience strategy that aims to expand globally based on domestic competitiveness.
The battle of the titans is heating up. Coupang is driving revenue with a solid fulfillment infrastructure, while Naver is gaining share with data and technology-driven recommendations.
Meanwhile, competing platforms like SSG.COM and 11th Street are struggling, Timon was acquired by Oasis, and Wimef went bankrupt. Even the once hot Temu-Aliexpress has cooled off. Korean commerce products are being super-appified, and the duopoly of Coupang and Naver is likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future. In the global market, a new technology or model will have to emerge before a new player can emerge.
