Coupang CEO has a ridiculous excuse for skipping government grilling

The CEO of ecommerce up-and-comer Coupang, South Korea’s most-funded startup, is in hot water for skipping a National Assembly audit of government and corporate affairs. His excuse? A basketball injury.

According to The Korea Herald, Coupang founder and CEO Bom Kim was supposed to be questioned by lawmakers on Monday over multiple allegations of unfair business practices. The main complaint centers on Coupang’s “Rocket Delivery” service, which provides shoppers with free 24-hour delivery if they spend a minimum of KRW 9,800 (US$8.30) per order. Rival logistics providers claim that the startup uses its own fleet of unregistered delivery vehicles.

A Seoul Northern District court dismissed similar charges against Coupang in July, but the delivery service is awaiting separate review by government regulators. Other charges claim that the startup pushes sellers to use its service exclusively.

Coupang head of policy Dae-jun Park attended the National Assembly meeting in Kim’s place. When questioned about the CEO’s absence, he offered the following excuse:

Kim damaged his Achilles’ tendon [while playing basketball]. He is wearing a gigantic cast and has to wear shorts instead of long trousers. We thought it would be inappropriate for a person to show up at the parliamentary hearing in shorts.

If the injury had taken place over the weekend, it might be a worthy excuse – but a Coupang spokesperson described the injury simply as taking place “some time ago.”

Founded in 2010, Coupang is worth an estimated US$5 billion following a US$1 billion funding round from Japan’s SoftBank in June. The startup additionally raised US$300 million from Blackrock Private Equity Partners last December and US$100 million from Sequoia Capital in May 2014.

Coupang began as a Groupon clone focused on daily deals, but is now more akin to traditional ecommerce sites like Amazon and Rakuten.

(Source: The Korea Herald)