Kang Han-seung, Coupang CEO, Attends 'SME Conference' in Yongsan... "Contributing to Market Expansion"

Kang Han-seung, CEO of Coupang. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Kang Han-seung, CEO of Coupang, was reportedly invited on the 25th to a small and medium-sized business (SMB) event attended by President Yoon Seok-yeol as a representative of innovative companies.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Federation of SMEs held the "2022 SMBs Convention" on the afternoon of the same day at the lawn square in front of the Presidential Office building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

Attendees included President Yoon, Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, Lee Jeong-han, President of the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association, Kang Sam-kwon, Chairman of the Korea Venture Business Association, Oh Se-hee, President of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, as well as heads of SMB and venture business organizations and leaders of the five major conglomerates.

The reason Kang was invited to the SMB event is understood to be because Coupang has taken the lead in pioneering online sales channels for small businesses and micro-enterprises and has supported their growth.

Currently, 80% of Coupang’s sellers are small and micro businesses with annual sales under 3 billion KRW, and Coupang established a 400 billion KRW support fund last year to assist them. The sales of local small and micro businesses participating in the support program increased by 69% compared to the previous year.

In particular, Coupang’s "Rocket Delivery," where the company directly purchases products and handles sales and delivery, has become a driving force enabling small businesses with few employees and weak logistics infrastructure to rapidly expand their sales channels nationwide.

Small businesses have been able to reduce fixed costs such as store management fees and labor costs, which are a heavy burden in the early stages of business, allowing them to focus solely on producing high-quality products.

CEO Kang said, "Going forward, through innovation and investment, we will ensure that hundreds of thousands of small business owners working with Coupang can grow together, and actively participate in realizing new entrepreneurial spirit as an innovative company of Korea."

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