There are a total of 4 vouchers provided. It is 5,000 won for all Coupang products including Rocket Delivery and Rocket Direct Purchase, 5,000 won for Coupang Eats, 20,000 won for Coupang Travel products, and 20,000 won for Alux products. This is a ticket that can only be used once and cannot be split into multiple amounts. Coupang said on this day, “We hope this will help reduce the burden of spending on frequently consumed daily necessities and delivery food.”
There is criticism that this compensation plan is not a compensation for customer damage, but a ‘flight prevention measure’. This is because the compensation for all Coupang products and Coupang Eats, which are widely used by consumers, is only 5,000 won each. Coupang Travel is a category that sells travel-related products, and Coupang Allux is a category that sells luxury beauty and fashion products. Compared to Coupang and Coupang Eats, the number of users is not large and the product price is high. There is also a problem that members who have withdrawn must re-join Coupang in order to use the purchase voucher.
Lee Jong-woo, a professor of business administration at Ajou University, pointed out, “In the case of Coupang Travel and Alux, the number of users is actually small, but the amount available is divided into categories.” He added, “The overall compensation amount has increased, but it seems to have been released from a marketing perspective to increase the number of customers using Coupang, not from the perspective of customer convenience.”
The amount of compensation is also smaller than the amount that must be compensated in the event of a personal information leak in the United States. According to the legal community, in the United States, compensation per person due to personal information leakage ranges from $20 (approximately 30,000 won) to as much as $1,000 (approximately 1.5 million won). SK Telecom, which previously leaked the personal information of 23 million people, provided compensation worth a total of 500 billion won, including waiving penalties for subscribers who switched to other mobile carriers and providing a 50% discount on communication fees in August.
Citizens who were waiting for Coupang’s compensation plan also responded with absurdity. Mr. Lee (35), a citizen, said, “Coupang and Coupang Eats, which I use the most, only cost 5,000 won, and the remaining 20,000 won vouchers that can be used in Travel and Alux actually sound like ‘if you want to spend it, spend more money.’” He added, “I had no intention of quitting before, but I think this compensation plan is making fun of customers, so I plan to quit soon.”
Some analysts say that the trend of ‘departures’ may accelerate after Coupang’s compensation plan. This is because we cannot rule out the possibility that citizens who intend to withdraw after receiving compensation will withdraw after using the purchase voucher. Mr. Park (29), who is planning a trip to Dubai at the end of January next year, said, “I searched on Coupang Travel to see if there was a ticket that can be used for 20,000 won, but it turned out that there were few related products and almost no days on which it was available for purchase.” He added, “I had a burning desire to defect, but I was waiting because I thought I should receive compensation for the personal information leak, but I feel like I was deceived.”