Doubled in Two Years... Coupang Eats Surpasses 14 Million Users

Last Month's MAU: Baemin at 24.4 Million
Coupang Eats Narrows the Gap With 14.44 Million

The monthly active users (MAU) for the delivery application (app) Coupang Eats has surpassed 14 million. This marks nearly a twofold increase in just two years, and considering that the food delivery market is already saturated, it is being hailed as a remarkable achievement. The main driver behind this growth has been a consumer-friendly strategy represented by "free delivery."

According to the mobile index of data platform company IGAWorks on September 6, last month, the number of users (MAU) for Baemin, Coupang Eats, and Yogiyo reached 24.4 million, 14.44 million, and 3.98 million, respectively. Compared to the previous month, Baemin saw a 1.2% decrease, while Coupang Eats increased by 4.3%, surpassing the 14 million mark for the first time. Notably, Baemin, the market leader, has hovered with only slight fluctuations since May, coinciding with its parent company's efforts to sell the business, but Coupang Eats attracted attention by increasing its user base for four consecutive months. During this period, Coupang Eats saw a net increase of nearly 1.3 million users.

The recent growth of Coupang Eats has been driven by expanded free delivery. At the end of May, Coupang Eats extended free delivery—previously available only to paying Coupang Wow members—to general users until the end of last month. Although the promotion has ended, more than 920,000 additional users joined since free delivery was expanded in June, showing its effectiveness.

Free delivery, along with single-order deliveries, is cited as a key strategy that enabled Coupang Eats, a latecomer to the market, to establish itself and grow rapidly. Coupang Eats began offering free delivery to Coupang Wow members at the end of March 2024. At that time, Coupang’s monthly user base was 6.26 million—less than one-third that of Baemin. However, the number rose to 8.1 million by August that year and reached 10 million by the following January, just 10 months later. Compared to last month’s 14.44 million users, this means 8.18 million users have joined since the launch of free delivery.

This figure far exceeds the overall growth rate of the delivery market. The total number of users in the delivery category grew by 14.5%, increasing from 26.28 million in August 2024 to 30.11 million last month. However, Coupang Eats saw 78.2% growth during the same period. Baemin was quick to respond by introducing its own free delivery strategy to defend its market share, but its user base increased by only 7.0% over two years.

Although free delivery has expanded consumer benefits, there have been ongoing concerns about negative side effects in the overall market. Particularly among affiliated businesses, it is argued that the competition over free delivery ultimately shifts costs onto small business owners, leading to higher prices for dine-in and delivery foods. There are increasing calls to move away from this “bleeding competition” fueled by free delivery and to pursue structural changes aimed at building a more sustainable ecosystem.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.