"Chinese Products Just Can't Compete"... Korean Customers Switching from Ali and Temu to Coupang

Users of Chinese e-commerce platforms such as AliExpress and Temu showed a decline for two consecutive months in April and May. This is attributed to a drop in platform trust due to ongoing safety issues.

Global online marketplace AliExpress held a press conference on the 6th at Lotte Hotel Seoul to announce the 'Strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights and Consumer Protection.' Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

According to WiseApp, a service analyzing applications, retail, and goods, the average monthly number of users from January to May this year was highest for Coupang at 30,564,130, followed by Gmarket and Auction with 8,280,439 users. AliExpress ranked third with 8,223,910 users, followed by Tmon, Wemakeprice, and Interpark Shopping (8,016,651 users), 11st (7,603,891 users), Temu (7,204,290 users), and SSG.com and Emart Mall (3,409,630 users).

However, looking at the monthly trends this year, SSG.com and Emart Mall saw an increase in users starting from March, and 11st from April. Gmarket and Auction also rebounded last month after a decline from January to April.

On the other hand, the number of users for AliExpress and Temu decreased consecutively in April and May. Industry experts analyze that the decline in platform trust is due to the quality of low-priced Chinese products not meeting consumer expectations. At the same time, domestic platforms launching large-scale promotions to compete against these platforms also appears to have helped in recovering user numbers.