Coupang swings to record $798 mil. loss in 1st half after data breach costs

Coupang Inc., the U.S.-headquartered holding company of Korea’s e-commerce giant Coupang, swung to its largest first-half operating loss on record due to fines stemming from last year's massive data breach involving 33.7 million customers. Despite the setback, Coupang said customer spending has largely recovered and expects to return to its previous growth and margin trajectory next year, once it overcomes the impact of the data breach. The New York-listed company reported on Tuesday (local time) a first-half operating loss of $798 million and a net loss of $836 million after booking customer compensation costs and regulatory fines related to the breach. The losses wiped out nearly all of the operating profit it generated over the previous two years, marking its worst first-half performance since the company was founded in 2010. Along with customer compensation costs related to the data breach, about $410 million in administrative fines imposed by local regulators drove the first-half losses. The bulk of the losses came in the second quarter. The company’s second-quarter revenue rose