"Three Out of Ten Call for Coupang's Suspension... Public Outrage at Kim Beomseok's Attitude"

Realmeter Survey Commissioned by Tip-off Team Leader
512 Men and Women Aged 18 and Over Nationwide
32% Support Criminal Prosecution of Those Responsible, 29.4% Support Business Suspension
6 Out of 10 Support Bill to Ban Entry of Responsible Parti

Recently, following a large-scale personal information leak by Coupang that sparked public outrage, a survey found that 3 out of 10 people in South Korea believe the appropriate level of punishment for Coupang should be "criminal prosecution of those responsible." Nearly 30% also supported the idea of suspending the company's business operations.

According to a public opinion survey commissioned by the investigative reporting team to polling agency Realmeter, released on December 29, the most common response regarding the appropriate punishment for Coupang's large-scale personal information leak was "criminal prosecution of those responsible" at 32%. This was followed by "suspension of business operations" (29.4%), "imposing a fine" (14.3%), and "restrictions on new business activities" (6.1%).

Regarding recent allegations of external pressure on the investigation into Coupang's severance pay case, about 7 out of 10 respondents (67.3%) agreed with the call for a comprehensive investigation into all of Coupang's criminal and labor-related cases.

As for the actions of Chairman Kim Beomseok that have caused the greatest public outrage, the most cited were "an attitude that appears to disregard the rights of Korean consumers and the application of domestic law by emphasizing the U.S. corporate structure" (23.3%), and "avoiding responsibility by putting the Korean corporate representative at the forefront, despite being the actual controlling shareholder" (22.5%).

This was followed by "focusing more on lobbying U.S. politicians than on addressing the incident" (18.6%), "allegations of ordering destruction of evidence and concealing deaths from overwork" (13.5%), and "notifying non-attendance at the National Assembly hearing citing global management schedules" (6.5%).

In addition, 69.1% of respondents agreed with the criticism that Chairman Kim Beomseok is evading social responsibility by citing his U.S. citizenship, despite being the actual controlling shareholder.

Regarding the proposed law to restrict or ban the entry of foreign executives who fail to attend the National Assembly without just cause, 63.2% of respondents expressed support.

Furthermore, 68.5% said that recent social controversies surrounding Chairman Kim Beomseok, as reported in the media, have affected their use of Coupang's services. Responses regarding "considering leaving Coupang" accounted for 26.1%, while "not yet withdrawn but planning to reduce usage" (18.5%) and "already completed withdrawal" (16.1%) brought the so-called "leaving Coupang" sentiment to 60%.

This survey was conducted on December 26 among adults aged 18 and over nationwide, using an automated telephone response system with randomly dialed calls. The overall response rate was 4.4%, with a total of 512 respondents.