The New York Stock Exchange-listed Korean e-commerce giant is growing faster than expected in Taiwan but faces supply chain and logistical challenges.
Market heavyweight Coupang posted record revenue and profits in the third quarter, beating Wall Street’s expectations. Sales rose 18% year-over-year to US$9.3 billion, while net income jumped 21% to US$95 million.
That performance has become one of the company’s strongest tailwinds this year. “In Taiwan, our momentum continues to accelerate, generating exciting year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter revenue growth again this quarter,” Coupang founder and CEO Bom Kim said in a November 4 earnings call. “These levels of customer adoption in Taiwan are similar to those we saw at the same stage in building our retail business in Korea, reinforcing our confidence in its long-term potential.”
Fresh food, everyday essentials, cosmetics, and electronics from Korea are among Coupang’s best-selling items in Taiwan. Additionally, Coupang promotes the products of small and medium-sized Korean companies in Taiwan and sells luxury goods, to which it gained access following its acquisition of the British e-commerce platform Farfetch in 2024.
“Coupang’s aggressive expansion reflects both the company’s long-term ambitions and Taiwan’s strategic value as a high-density, high-income e-commerce market,” says Julia Tu, an analyst at the semigovernmental Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC). She notes that when Coupang first entered the Taiwan market in mid-2021, it aggressively subsidized the purchases of price-sensitive consumers — particularly parents buying baby products, shoppers of daily necessities, and snack buyers. “The goal was to build early habits and rapidly scale its user base before expanding to broader demographics,” she says.
Strong sales in those product categories helped establish consistent user engagement and positioned Coupang as a reliable next-day delivery platform.
Operationally, the company’s step-by-step buildout of logistics capabilities has also been a major success factor. Coupang launched Rocket Delivery and Rocket Overseas in Taiwan in 2022. In 2023, it opened a second logistics center in Taoyuan. The following year, it established its first overseas delivery subsidiary and built a third Taiwan logistics center. This year, it rolled out its WOW subscription membership program in Taiwan.
“This rapid infrastructure rollout mirrors Coupang’s Korea playbook and forms the backbone of its accelerated growth in Taiwan,” Tu says.
Looking ahead, Coupang expects continued growth in Taiwan to be driven primarily by two factors: an expanding selection of goods and the buildout of last-mile logistics. Kim said in the earnings call that the company has seen significant growth in the share of goods sold on its platform volume being delivered through its own last-mile logistics, “creating the potential for us to approach the levels of speed and reliability that customers have come to expect from Coupang in Korea.”
Challenges in Taiwan
Despite this bullish sentiment, analysts have some concerns about Coupang’s operations in Taiwan. Stanley Yang, an analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities Far East in Korea, said in the November earnings call that “Taiwan’s e-commerce market is very difficult to follow on the back of the lack of company data or industry data.” Given that challenge, he asked Coupang CEO Kim to provide more details about Coupang’s approximate market share, how fast it is growing, and the size of its operating loss in Taiwan.
Kim declined to provide any specific numbers. “It’s very early in Taiwan and probably too early to go into a lot of details on a number of areas,” he said. However, what gives Coupang the most confidence about its business in Taiwan is that customer behavior there looks similar to that of Korean consumers during Coupang’s early days in its home market, Kim added.
Coupang’s rapid expansion has put significant competitive pressure on local platforms in Taiwan like PChome and Momo. Its early focus on price slashing — including deep discounts and direct price cuts on products — intensified price competition and diverted consumer traffic from domestic e-commerce companies.
Yet local e-commerce companies have adapted in the face of Coupang’s price slashing. For instance, Momo has teamed up with Meta to integrate e-commerce and social media platforms to develop a retail media network for its advertising. In August, Momo also launched a large new logistics facility in central Taiwan.
At the same time, the sustainability of such a subsidy-heavy business model like Coupang’s is limited. Losses mount even as scale ramps up, forcing companies to shift away from pure price competition. MIC’s Tu notes that Coupang’s pricing today is largely aligned with other platforms, except for a subset of promotional items. “This indicates a strategic pivot toward long-term competitive levers, such as assortment breadth and logistics quality,” she says.
Maintaining momentum
Going forward, Coupang must overcome several challenges to maintain momentum. First, it faces supply chain constraints. Some brands have been reluctant to supply Coupang due to concerns from other retail channels. On the logistics front, competition is intense, despite Taiwan’s domestic e-commerce companies having spent years building deep, localized logistics capabilities. Building logistics centers and a proprietary delivery fleet — both mentioned as future priorities by Bom Kim — requires significant long-term investment.
Nai500, a Canada-based market intelligence platform, said in an August research note that for Coupang in Taiwan, “replicating Korea’s adoption curve requires either clear service differentiation or an ecosystem kicker, such as membership benefits that stack with delivery.”
WOW membership could provide the latter. Members of the program, which is available exclusively in Taiwan, receive free shipping on Rocket Delivery products regardless of the purchase amount, as well as free returns for Rocket Delivery items within 30 days. WOW members also have access to exclusive coupons and discounts.
“Coupang is undeniably reshaping Taiwan’s e-commerce landscape, but surpassing well-established local players will require more time, stronger sourcing relationships, and continued investment in infrastructure,” Tu says.
