"Invested Over 90 Billion Won, But It's Not Easy"... Daangn Struggles in Canada

Injection of 20.2 Billion Won into Canada’s Top Secondhand Market Dominated by Facebook

Surpassing 2 Million Local Users but No Operating Revenue Yet

"Unmatched by Early Korean Service... Targeting 1 Million MAUs"

The second-hand marketplace platform Daangn Market (Daangn) is facing the challenge of achieving profitability in the North American market. Although it has invested over 90 billion won in its Canadian subsidiary—including 20.2 billion won at the beginning of this year—it has yet to generate any profits amid fierce competition with platforms like Facebook.

According to the industry on the 14th, Daangn has invested a cumulative total of 92.1 billion won in its Canadian subsidiary, Karrot Canada Corp (Carrot Canada). The investments were made sequentially as follows: 28 billion won in 2021, 6.9 billion won in 2023, 25.9 billion won in 2024, 36.3 billion won in 2025, and another 20.2 billion won this January. The company explained that these investments were aimed at securing local users, expanding the service base, and improving features and marketing.

Daangn entered the North American market in 2021 by establishing its local subsidiary, DAANGN INC, in Toronto, Canada, and subsequently changed the name of the subsidiary to Carrot Canada (Carrot) in 2024. In February 2025, Carrot surpassed 2 million cumulative subscribers, and in July of the same year, it expanded its service coverage nationwide across Canada. Currently, Co-CEO Kim Yonghyun is stationed in Canada and is overseeing business operations in the North American region.

Daangn chose Toronto as its North American hub after considering factors such as market size, population density and diversity, and general receptiveness. According to a joint study released in 2025 by local retail consulting firm DIG360, 77% of Canadian adults had purchased second-hand goods at least once in the past year. The company also considered that, if the business model succeeded in Canada, it could be easily expanded to the rest of North America, including the United States, which shares similar lifestyle cultures.

The Carrot Canada homepage features a wide variety of second-hand items. Carrot Canada homepage

The main issue is that there is still no clear revenue model. Carrot has not generated any operating revenue to date. In 2025 alone, its net loss reached 37.5 billion won. As of the 13th, Carrot ranked fifth among free applications in the Social category on both the Canadian Apple App Store and Google Play Store, but the platform remains focused on second-hand transactions without the local community features seen in Korea's "Neighborhood Life."

A Carrot representative stated, "We are not considering monetization through commissions as we do in Korea," adding, "We are currently in an investment phase for future growth, so it is difficult to disclose any specific monetization models or plans." The representative continued, "Just like in Korea, Carrot aims to evolve from a platform for second-hand transactions into a community service that connects people and regions," and requested that the platform's classification in the 'Social' rather than 'Shopping' category be understood as part of this vision.

The aforementioned study found that 76% of all buyers used Facebook Marketplace when conducting second-hand transactions. Although the influence of Kijiji—often called the "Korean Joonggonara of Canada"—has declined compared to the past, it remains highly recognized, making it difficult for latecomer Daangn to gain competitiveness.

Carrot plans to naturally establish a profit base as it expands its user base through a "hyperlocal" strategy focused on building a trustworthy, neighborhood-centric trading environment and by innovating with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features. Its medium- to long-term goal is to reach 1 million monthly active users (MAU). To achieve this, it has introduced features rarely seen in the North American market, such as a KYC (face and ID-based authentication) system and AI-powered automatic chat translation. A Carrot representative noted, "This is a much higher level of service than the early Daangn platform in Korea."

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