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

Last month, Baemin recorded 24.4 million MAU,
while Coupang Eats reached 14.44 million,
narrowing the gap

Expansion of free delivery proves effective

The monthly active users (MAU) of the delivery application Coupang Eats have surpassed 14 million. This marks approximately a twofold growth in just two years—an impressive achievement considering that the delivery market is already saturated. The key driver behind this growth has been a consumer-friendly strategy represented by 'free delivery'.

According to Mobile Index, the mobile analytics service of data platform company IGAWorks, on September 6, the number of MAU for Baemin, Coupang Eats, and Yogiyo last month was 24.4 million, 14.44 million, and 3.98 million, respectively. Compared to the previous month, Baemin decreased by 1.2%, while Coupang Eats increased by 4.3%, surpassing the 14 million user mark for the first time. Notably, Baemin, currently the market leader, had experienced only slight fluctuations since May—the month associated with attempts to sell the company. In contrast, Coupang Eats has increased its users for four consecutive months, drawing attention. During this period, Coupang Eats achieved a net increase of nearly 1.3 million users.

The recent growth of Coupang Eats has been led by the expansion of free delivery. At the end of May, Coupang Eats extended the benefit of free delivery, which had previously been available only to paid Coupang Wow members, to general users as well, continuing this promotion until the end of last month. Although the promotion has now ended, the app saw a surge of more than 920,000 new users since June, when free delivery was expanded, demonstrating its effectiveness.

Free delivery, together with single-order delivery, is considered a major strategy that enabled latecomer Coupang Eats to establish itself in the market and experience rapid growth. Coupang Eats began offering free delivery exclusively to Coupang Wow members in late March 2024. At that time, its MAU stood at 6.26 million, less than a third of Baemin's user base. However, the figure rose to 8.1 million by August of that year, and in just 10 months, surpassed the 10 million mark by January of the following year. With 14.44 million users recorded last month, this means that 8.18 million users joined since the introduction of free delivery.

This increase far exceeds the overall growth of the delivery market. The total number of users in the delivery category rose by 14.5% over two years, from 26.28 million in August 2024 to 30.11 million last month. In the same period, Coupang Eats grew by 78.2%. While Baemin also quickly introduced free delivery in an effort to maintain its market position, it was only able to achieve 7.0% user growth during those two years.

However, despite expanding consumer benefits, some point out that free delivery has also brought side effects to the market overall. In particular, partner merchants have argued that competition over free delivery ultimately shifted costs onto small businesses, leading to higher prices for dining out and delivery. There are also opinions that free delivery has triggered cutthroat competition among delivery apps, leading to calls for structural changes in order to build a sustainable delivery ecosystem. It is now a common perception in the industry that new approaches to competition, rather than methods like free delivery, are needed. An industry official said, "Coupang Eats has focused on increasing consumer satisfaction to fuel its growth, but now that it is set to compete with Uber, which acquired Baemin's parent company, we expect to see strategies aimed at building even better services."

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