With Coupang set to announce last year's results, attention is focused on whether its annual revenue can exceed 50 trillion won. The results will be the first report card since a large-scale personal data leak at Coupang last year. Focus is also on what message Coupang Inc Chairman Kim Beom-seok (김범석) will deliver on the conference call after the earnings release.

On Feb. 24, the related industry said Coupang's parent company, Coupang Inc, is scheduled to disclose its fourth-quarter and full-year results for last year on the morning of Feb. 27, Korea time.

The industry believes Coupang achieved 50 trillion won in annual revenue last year. After surpassing 40 trillion won in revenue for the first time in 2024, Coupang maintained a solid performance trend through the first to third quarters of last year.

According to a consolidated performance report Coupang Inc filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Coupang Inc posted annual revenue of 41.2901 trillion won in 2024. That was up 29 percent from 31.8298 trillion won a year earlier. Operating profit came to 602.3 billion won, down 2.4 percent year on year, but it extended an operating profit streak to 2 years.

Even after reaching 40 trillion won in annual revenue, it continued to deliver strong quarterly results last year. Each quarter, the company expanded its scale by around 20 percent and improved profitability.

Coupang's operating profit for the first quarter of last year rose 340 percent from a year earlier to 233.7 billion won. Revenue during the same period increased 21 percent to 11.4786 trillion won. It set a quarterly revenue record, surpassing 11.1139 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2024. Its operating margin improved to 2 percent from 0.6 percent a year earlier.

In the second quarter of last year, it posted operating profit of 209.3 billion won, swinging to profit from an operating loss of 34.2 billion won in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 19 percent year on year to 11.9763 trillion won. In the third quarter of the same year, operating profit was 224.5 billion won and revenue was 12.8455 trillion won, up 51.5 percent and 20 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

For the fourth quarter, the personal data leak emerged as a variable, but some say it will not have a significant impact on the fourth-quarter and full-year results for last year. That is because the leak surfaced in November last year and compensation coupons issued on Jan. 15 are not reflected in these results.

According to Wiseapp Retail's '2025 estimated payment amount report' released last month, Coupang's estimated annual payment amount last year was 66.2109 trillion won. That was up 13 percent from a year earlier.

Still, changes in fourth-quarter growth are an industry focus, as there were moves among Coupang users to quit the service and boycott the company. The outlook is that fourth-quarter indicators will serve as a gauge of Coupang's future performance in South Korea.

Consumer indicators also showed signs of change. As of December last year, after the personal data leak, Coupang's monthly active users stood at 33.18 million, down from 34.28 million in the same period a year earlier.

Attention is also on what message Chairman Kim will deliver in this earnings release. Kim has attended earnings conference calls since the company's listing on the New York stock market in 2021 and has consistently stressed the growth potential of the South Korean market. In last year's earnings release, Kim said, "Korea is a market with very robust growth opportunities, and there is still substantial room for growth."

In particular, the mood is that concerns are continuing in U.S. politics as well. U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Prime Minister Kim Min-seok last month, "There should not be any disadvantageous measures against U.S. companies including Coupang." That is why attention is focused on what Kim will say.

An industry official said, "Coupang has continued to grow its scale by around 20 percent each quarter last year, so the possibility of surpassing 50 trillion won in annual revenue is open," but added, "As some changes in user indicators have been detected since the personal data leak, the fourth-quarter growth trend will be an indicator to gauge future performance."