🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Court rehabilitation success depends heavily on finding viable acquisition partners

• The contrasting fates of WeMakePrice and TMON demonstrate how similar companies can have dramatically different outcomes in court-supervised rehabilitation.
• Both e-commerce platforms entered rehabilitation proceedings in September 2024 due to identical liquidity issues and vendor payment problems1.
• TMON successfully exited rehabilitation after being acquired by grocery delivery platform Oasis Corp. in June, with the court approving its rehabilitation plan1.
• WeMakePrice, however, failed to submit any rehabilitation plan by the court deadline and struggled to find any buyer despite actively seeking acquisition1.

Competitive pressure from dominant players makes survival difficult for smaller e-commerce platforms

• WeMakePrice’s failure occurred in a market dominated by Coupang, which controls 20-25% of South Korea’s e-commerce market and reported Q1 2025 revenue of $7.9 billion2.
• The competitive intensity is further heightened by Chinese rivals like Alibaba and JD.com gaining ground against established Korean players3.
• Smaller platforms face significant disadvantages in logistics capabilities, as Coupang operates over 100 fulfillment centers supporting same-day and overnight delivery services2.
• The market consolidation pressure is evident in how even well-funded platforms struggle—WeMakePrice’s liquidation represents a broader trend where smaller e-commerce players find it increasingly difficult to compete on delivery speed, pricing, and customer acquisition costs.