Coupang Hires Numerous Financial Experts Including Wall Street Veterans for 'Rocket Delivery'...

Injecting Talent in Credit Information Protection and Lobbying... Financial Supervisory Service and Others Respond
Hiring Wall Street Experts... Coupang Pay Office Under Remodeling
Organizational Restructuring and Expansion Expected... Potential Entry into Financial Business

Coupang ran a billboard advertisement in March at Times Square in Manhattan, New York, to commemorate its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. [Provided by Coupang. Resale and DB prohibited]
photo@yna.co.kr
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[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] Domestic e-commerce company Coupang is actively recruiting financial industry experts to handle credit information protection and government relations. Analysts suggest that Coupang is strengthening its related organizations to expand its financial business territory. Industry insiders and experts unanimously agree that Coupang has "ample potential" to enter the financial business.

According to the industry on the 15th, Coupang Pay, Coupang's fintech (finance + technology) subsidiary, has been recruiting experts to oversee financial institutions and financial regulatory responses since early this month. Although Coupang has steadily hired government relations personnel until recently, the agencies they dealt with were limited to distribution-related ministries such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. This is the first time Coupang is hiring personnel to professionally respond to financial institutions such as the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.

Coupang is also recruiting experts to oversee credit information protection and MyData operations. In the job posting, Coupang listed as qualifications "practical experience in personal and credit information protection at companies in fintech, financial companies, MyData, etc." Earlier, in April, Coupang recruited a financial security expert with over 10 years of experience on Wall Street in the United States. This expert is currently working at Coupang's Jamsil headquarters located in Songpa-gu, Seoul.

Coupang Pay is extensively remodeling the 16th floor of the Jamsil headquarters used as its office. The industry views this as Coupang Pay preparing for a full-scale organizational restructuring and expansion.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Given this situation, the prospect of Coupang's entry into the financial industry is gaining traction. This is because significant synergy effects are expected between Coupang's existing businesses such as e-commerce and food delivery and its financial business. An industry insider explained, "Basically, when an e-commerce company also operates in the financial industry, there are many advantages such as lock-in effects," adding, "They can directly accumulate customer payment data and accelerate platform business diversification."

Previously, Coupang hinted at expanding its fintech business. In the S-1 document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in March, Coupang stated it would "grow Coupang Pay." This is interpreted as a strategy to strengthen platform influence by combining fintech services with e-commerce business, similar to Coupang's role model Amazon. Since last year, Amazon has been actively expanding its financial business by collaborating with global financial firms such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to offer loan and insurance services.

Experts have a positive outlook on Coupang's potential entry into the financial industry. Professor Kihoon Hong of Hongik University's Department of Business Administration said, "For platforms with big data, finance is a new cash cow," adding, "There is no way a company like Coupang would not target the financial industry."

Professor Byungtae Lee of KAIST Business School explained, "As seen with Amazon and Alibaba, the entry of e-commerce companies into the financial industry is a global trend," adding, "In India, Amazon has already grown into one of the largest financial companies." He added, "Payment service provider PayPal also gained its current status through the e-commerce company eBay," and "Coupang is also likely to have high demand for financial services."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.