Last year’s data breach at Coupang has exposed a structural risk in South Korea’s platform economy, raising the likelihood of tighter regulatory enforcement, politicized oversight and higher compliance costs for firms operating at scale.

When the U.S.-headquartered e-commerce giant disclosed in late 2025 that hackers had accessed data linked to tens of millions of users, the company sought to reassure customers that payment information and passwords had not been compromised.

That messaging, however, failed to contain the fallout. The scale of the exposure — involving names, contact details and delivery addresses — placed Coupang under sustained scrutinyfrom regulators, lawmakers