Coupang Eats 'Friday Night Dinner Outage'... Various Issues Raised

Friday's 'Peak Time' Outage at Coupang Eats... "Internal System Error, Compensation Planned for Next Settlement Date"
Server Overload Due to Unauthorized Program? IT Industry Says "Hard to Conclude"

The food delivery application Coupang Eats experienced a server error on the 9th, causing the service to be suspended for about four hours. Coupang Eats plans to compensate for the canceled orders on the settlement date, the 21st of this month.

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Cheol-hyun and Lee Jun-hyung] Various issues have been raised regarding the cause of the 'server outage' incident of the food delivery application Coupang Eats that occurred on the evening of the 9th, known as 'Bulgeum' (Friday night). Coupang Eats explained that the outage was due to an internal system error, but suspicions have arisen that it might have been caused by illegal programs used by some riders (delivery drivers). There is also an analysis that the sudden increase in orders may have overloaded Coupang Eats' artificial intelligence (AI) dispatch system.

According to the related industry on the 12th, Coupang Eats' server went down during the dinner peak time three days ago, causing a service interruption for about four hours. This caused inconvenience to users, delivery riders, and partner restaurants. Coupang Eats stated, "The outage was caused by an internal system error," and added, "We plan to compensate for canceled orders due to the outage on the next settlement date." Coupang Eats also experienced a system outage on the 10th of last month, which delayed service, and individual compensation was provided for the damages afterward.

Despite Coupang's explanation, some riders have pointed out that the server strain might have been caused by unauthorized programs used to increase profitability. In a KakaoTalk group chat (group chat room) of Coupang Eats riders, posts repeatedly appeared asking, "Was the server error caused by 'Jijigi'?" This is the name of an illegal macro program secretly used by riders. It allows selecting multiple orders at once and automatically accepts only high-priced orders within short distances, thereby increasing the rider's profitability. Since it operates through a kind of cyber attack (hacking), even a robust server inevitably experiences strain whenever the program runs.

Coupang Eats prohibits the use of unauthorized programs through its terms and conditions, but it is known that some secretly use them to increase their earnings. Park Kyung-jin (49, pseudonym), a Coupang Eats rider active in Gangnam, Seoul, explained, "Jijigi is a program that has been widely used since the quick delivery industry in the past," and added, "There is talk that it is used to grab good orders."

However, the IT industry consensus is that it is difficult to definitively conclude that the server outage was caused by the use of such illegal programs. A delivery app R&D sector official explained, "Using macros can send multiple inputs in a short time and affect the server, but it is hard to say that the overload was caused by a single specific factor."

Some also suggest that the surge in orders may have caused problems in Coupang Eats' AI dispatch system. Coupang Eats operates a 'single-order delivery' system, assigning one delivery person per order, and applies AI-based dispatching. As orders surged, the number of AI algorithm executions increased, which may have caused system issues. The fact that Coupang Eats users more than doubled in February this year compared to November last year supports this assumption.

An industry insider emphasized, "While there is a risk of outages in rapidly growing IT-based services, swift and transparent identification of causes and measures to prevent recurrence are crucial for service continuity."