Coupang Q4 2024: Revenue Surges 21% to $8.0 Billion

Seoul, South Korea—Coupang, Inc. (NYSE: CPNG) reported robust financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024, with net revenues reaching $8.0 billion, up 21% year over year and 28% on an FX-neutral basis.

Excluding Farfetch, the company's revenue grew 14% on a reported basis and 21% on an FX-neutral basis.

Gross profit for the quarter increased 48% year-over-year to $2.5 billion, with a gross profit margin of 31.3%, representing an improvement of 570 basis points compared to the previous year. 

Excluding Farfetch and a non-recurring $116 million fulfillment center fire insurance gain recorded in Q4, gross profit was $2.2 billion, growing 29% yearly.

The company reported a net income of $131 million for the quarter, with $156 million attributable to Coupang stockholders. 

Excluding the fire insurance gain, net income attributable to Coupang stockholders was approximately $24 million. 

Diluted earnings per share stood at $0.08, or $0.01, excluding the insurance gain.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $421 million with a margin of 5.3%, up 80 basis points from the previous year. Excluding Farfetch, adjusted EBITDA was $391 million with a margin of 5.2%.

The Product Commerce segment, Coupang's core business, had net revenues of $6.9 billion, growing 9% year over year on a reported basis and 16% on an FX-neutral basis. 

Active customers in this segment reached 22.8 million, a 10% increase from the previous year.

The Developing Offerings segment, which includes International, Coupang Eats, Play, Fintech, and Farfetch, reported net revenues of $1.1 billion, up 296% year over year. 

Excluding Farfetch, growth in this segment was 124% on a reported basis and 136% on an FX-neutral basis.

For 2024, Coupang generated $30.3 billion in total net revenues, a 24% increase year-over-year. 

The company reported an operating cash flow of $1.9 billion and a free cash flow of $1.0 billion for the year.

Founder and CEO Bom Kim emphasized the company's customer-centric approach during the earnings call: 

"At Coupang, everything begins and ends with the customer. We work backward from a vision of a world where our customers have it all, the best experience at the lowest price."

Kim highlighted the company's operational improvements: 

"We made significant changes to upgrade our fulfillment and logistics processes, which enabled us this quarter to increase by 45% the deliveries that were either Same Day or Dawn." 

The company also reported a 16% improvement in linehaul costs through process optimization.

Regarding the Farfetch acquisition, Kim stated, "Farfetch's losses have shrunk dramatically to a breakeven run rate today, and this significant turnaround was achieved with minimal loss of scale. 

Farfetch continues to attract 49 million monthly visitors in over 190 countries worldwide."

Looking ahead to 2025, Coupang anticipates a constant currency consolidated growth rate of approximately 20% year-over-year. 

The company expects to deliver adjusted EBITDA margin expansion annually and projects adjusted EBITDA losses for its Developing Offerings segment to be between $650 million and $750 million.

CFO Gaurav Anand addressed investor concerns about macroeconomic uncertainties, saying: 

"FLC continues to grow faster than our overall Product Commerce revenue growth, which is not fully reflected in the revenue growth rates. As a result, we expect Product Commerce Gross Profit to grow faster than the related constant currency revenues."