TIVP002: Coupang (CPNG): The Amazon of South Korea w/ Shawn O’Malley

In today’s episode, Shawn O’Malley (@Shawn_OMalley_) tells the story of Coupang, the “Amazon of South Korea.” Coupang’s Bom Kim is an impressive founder & CEO who has led the company to incredible growth, with almost half of South Korea’s population becoming active customers of Coupang. And Coupang’s overnight delivery actually puts Amazon to shame, while few companies create as much value for customers as Coupang does with its RocketWOW memberships, which are similar to Amazon’s Prime subscriptions. But how well does this all translate into value for Coupang’s shareholders? In today’s episode, you’ll learn the origin story behind Coupang, how its business model works, why its stock has flopped since IPOing in 2021, how Shawn thinks about its valuation, and whether he wants to add it to The Intrinsic Value Portfolio, plus so much more!

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN 00:00 - Intro 02:51 - How Coupang captured the hearts — and wallets — of South Koreans 05:06 - Why Bom Kim founded Coupang 22:03 - What’s behind Coupang’s shift into luxury e-commerce 33:11 - Why Coupang is planning to expand more in Taiwan and what went wrong in Japan 38:40 - Which legendary investors have invested in Coupang 40:28 - How a negative cash conversion cycle supports Coupang’s free cash flows 42:34 - In what ways Temu and Alibaba are threatening Coupang 45:53 - How to think about Coupang’s intrinsic valuation 49:41 - Whether Shawn is adding Coupang to The Intrinsic Value Portfolio And much, much more!

*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Kyle and the other community members.

Sign up for The Intrinsic Value Newsletter.

Coupang’s pitch on the Value Investors Club forum.

Check out Miller Value Partners on Coupang.

Quartr’s breakdown of the Coupang story.

Coupang’s AI-powered fulfillment center.

Check out the books mentioned in the podcast here.

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