Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of James Lee with Mizuho. Your line is open.

James Lee: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. I got several follow-up questions on Taiwan. And I was wondering, Bom, can you talk about some of the learnings you have had so far? And also, if you can speak to some of the investments you are making, including maybe suppliers, customers, last-mile delivery. And also, can you also, lastly, speak to some of the competitive responses you’re seeing given your elevated level of investment in that region? Thanks.

Bom Kim: Hi, James. I think it’s very early. We have a lot of work ahead. We’ve been pleased with the response that we’ve gotten from customers. Our service, as we started it, is resonating with customers. We always believe that there are meaningful trade-offs we can break and the trade-offs we break will resonate with customers in many markets. And we’ve been delighted by the customer response so far. But as I mentioned, we have a lot of work ahead and are excited about the progress that we can make or we can look forward to in improving customer experience and operational excellence. And we care about both of those pillars. As always, we’ll continue to be disciplined and opportunistic. As we’ve demonstrated in the past, we’ll be rigorous in our analysis and invest only in opportunities that we believe will create both a meaningful differentiation of experience for customers and have meaningful return for our shareholders.

In general, we do, of course, pay attention to competition, but we tend to spend our energy obsessing about the things that we control. And we continue to be obsessed about improving customer experience and improving operational excellence. Those are the two fronts that we’ll spend all of our energy on.

James Lee: Great. Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We will now take our last question from the line of Jiong Shao with Barclays. Your line is open.

Jiong Shao: Thank you very much for taking my questions. My first question is on competition, but in Korea. As you know, some of the Chinese cross-border guys getting a bit more aggressive in Korea now. T-Mo entered the country a few months ago. AliExpress appears to be getting more aggressive in the country. Could you please talk about what do you see in terms of the competition from these guys? Any kind of product category overlap or not overlap? Any thoughts will be appreciated. And the second question is tied to Taiwan. I was wondering if there are metrics you can share with us in terms of either GMV, revenue, number of orders, anything like that or any kind of KPI metrics you are watching very closely for you to decide sort of the feasibility study, whether or not Taiwan is so strategic, they are here for the long-term, not like you pulled out of Japan, I think, a few months back. Thank you.

Bom Kim: Hi, Jiong. Thanks for your questions. As you can see, in Korea, we continue to show strong growth in both revenue and active customers. That’s what we see. And our growth, actually, there has been accelerating. For three consecutive quarters, it’s been accelerating. Active customers, as we mentioned, is growing faster than at any point since the pandemic levels. So we continue to see at least strong indications internally with all the internal metrics that we see, very strong metrics. We think it’s a reflection of the unmatched investments that we’ve made in what we believe is the best experience at the best cost. We’ll continue to make efforts and invest to expand selection. As we’ve mentioned, we continue to make those investments to expand selection, lower price and raise the bar for exceptional customer service experience for customers.