Coupang's massive data breach sparks growing strain on small businesses

The fallout from e-commerce giant Coupang's data breach is increasingly spreading to small businesses that heavily rely on the platform for sales, industry sources said Thursday. Last week, the U.S.-listed company said the personal information of 33.7 million customers had been compromised, including names, phone numbers, email addresses and delivery information. Given that active users in Coupang's Product Commerce division — which includes its delivery service — reached 24.7 million in the third quarter, the scale of the leak suggests that nearly the entire user base may have been affected. As a result, some sellers on Coupang's platform have already reported double-digit declines in sales, while others said they are considering shifting to alternative marketplaces. One small business owner wrote in an online community, "About 70 percent of our online sales come from Coupang, but orders have fallen by 30 percent since the data breach. This incident is a direct blow to sellers' livelihoods." Another seller said, "90 percent of our revenue comes from Coupang, but sales have sharply de