Rebranded as Coupang Intelligent Cloud (CIC)
Accelerating Customer Acquisition as a Cloud Service Provider
Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
"Prioritizing Collaboration with Research Institutions and Startups"
Coupang is set to officially launch its 'AI Cloud Computing Service,' following its ventures in retail and logistics. The AI cloud computing service enables customers to store various data and programs on the provider's servers and process them using artificial intelligence (AI). This move is viewed as an attempt to diversify its profit-generating business areas, similar to its role model, Amazon.
On July 2, Coupang announced the rebranding of its AI cloud computing service as 'Coupang Intelligent Cloud (CIC)' and unveiled a new logo. CIC is the new name for Coupang's AI Cloud Computing (GPUaaS), which reorganizes the AI infrastructure previously provided to Coupang's internal services, external research institutions, and startups.
All data centers operated by CIC are located in Seoul and the greater metropolitan area, featuring state-of-the-art infrastructure. The company explained that it can maintain stable operations even in various crisis situations due to its large-scale power supply, cutting-edge cooling systems, redundant power structure, multi-communication support, and comprehensive physical security systems. Numerous high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) have also been installed to effectively handle complex AI computing tasks.
Until now, Coupang has utilized its AI computing infrastructure primarily for service improvement and operational purposes across many of its own businesses. Notably, it explained that enhancements in customer experience analysis and processing have contributed to increased sales for approximately 230,000 small and medium-sized merchants nationwide. In addition, Coupang has been providing cloud services to external clients, including research institutions and startups outside the company.
A Coupang Intelligent Cloud representative stated, "We will provide the highest level of AI cloud computing services based on the latest GPU servers and stable, large-scale data centers," adding, "We aim to further enrich the AI ecosystem through active collaboration with startups and research institutions."
Coupang's recent moves are seen as adopting Amazon's strategic approach. Coupang already generates revenue by directly purchasing goods from manufacturers for its Rocket Delivery service, as well as through commissions, shipping, storage, and other fulfillment services for external sellers?closely mirroring Amazon's business strategy.
According to last year's data, Amazon's revenue breakdown shows that online store sales, representing direct sales, amounted to $247 billion (approximately 337.4 trillion KRW), accounting for 39% of total revenue. 'Third-party seller services' revenue followed at $156.1 billion (about 213.36 trillion KRW), making up 24.5%. Next, Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud service arm, generated $107.6 billion, representing 16.9% of total revenue. Coupang is also believed to have selected cloud services as its next core business, following retail and logistics, in consideration of this influence.
Meanwhile, last month, Coupang applied for the AI Computing Resource Utilization Enhancement Project, an initiative organized by the Ministry of Science and ICT. The company plans to broadly cooperate with various government projects aimed at building the AI ecosystem in the future.
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