Chaotic Delivery Market... Coupang Eats Approaches 2nd Place in Monthly Users

Recorded 5.74 Million MAU Last Month... 11 Consecutive Months of Growth
Gap with 2nd Place Yogiyo Narrows to Within 300,000 Users

The growth of Coupang Eats, the third-largest player in the delivery platform market, is remarkable. Despite the overall stagnation in the delivery market, its user base has increased for 11 consecutive months, narrowing the gap with the second place to within 300,000 users. It is closer than ever before. Although the first-place Baedal Minjok (Baemin) remains far ahead, if this trend continues, Coupang Eats is expected to overtake second place soon, bringing changes to the market landscape.

On the 5th, data company IGAWorks reported through Mobile Index that last month, the number of users (MAU) for Baemin, Yogiyo, and Coupang Eats were 21.93 million, 6.03 million, and 5.74 million respectively. Compared to the previous month, Baemin and Yogiyo decreased by 2.3% and 5.3%, respectively, while Coupang Eats increased by 3.8%.

The noticeable growth of Coupang Eats began about a year ago. In March last year, Coupang Eats had around 2.98 million monthly users, but since then, it has shown an upward trend for 11 consecutive months. During this period, the user base grew by 92.9%. In less than a year, 2.76 million new users were added. Meanwhile, Yogiyo remained around the 6 million mark. As a result, the gap between second and third place was 3.73 million in March last year but has now shrunk to 280,000. At this rate, a reversal is expected soon. According to industry insiders, Coupang Eats has already lost second place on a daily user basis at times, and the rankings continue to fluctuate.

Coupang Eats’ rapid progress is attributed to a strategy offering 5-10% discounts at designated restaurants for Coupang’s paid membership 'Rocket Wow' members. Since this discount benefit was applied from April last year, Coupang Eats users have sharply increased. Coupang explained that the number of Wow members using Coupang Eats rose by 90%, and order volume doubled. The growth of Coupang Eats also contributed to Coupang achieving its first annual profit last year. The revenue from growth sectors such as Coupang Eats, Coupang Play, and the Taiwan market in Q4 last year was $273 million (approximately 360.1 billion KRW), nearly doubling compared to the same period the previous year.

As the number of Coupang Wow members increased from 11 million in 2022 to 14 million last year, Coupang Eats is still considered to have significant potential to expand its user base. An industry insider explained, "The Wow membership Coupang Eats discount was intended to create a 'lock-in' effect to retain loyal Coupang customers, and at the same time, by targeting the active online shopping segment of Wow members, it encouraged them to choose Coupang Eats for delivery services."