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# Coupang CEO Says Third Quarter Is The 'Low Point' For Product Commerce Margins
- URL: https://www.bullished.co/coupang-ceo-says-third-quarter-is-the-low-point-for-product-commerce-margins-b8e081e8/
- Published: 2026-11-04T00:02:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-04T00:02:26.000Z
- Description: The CFO also raised the top of the 2026 developing-offerings loss range by $50 million to $100 million, mainly for Taiwan.
- Author: Matteo Parrino
- Tags: Earnings, CPNG, Industry: Consumer Discretionary

[Coupang](https://www.bullished.co/tag/cpng/) founder and CEO Bom Kim said on the company's earnings call Tuesday that the third quarter was the bottom for margins in its core product commerce business, which has been recovering from last year's data incident. CFO Gaurav Anand said on the same call that Coupang is lifting the top end of its 2026 developing-offerings loss range to speed up its Taiwan build-out.

## A bottom called, a rebound dated

Coupang, which runs online retail, restaurant delivery, video streaming and financial services under brands including Coupang, Eats and Play, posted product commerce adjusted EBITDA of $385 million in the third quarter, a 4.6% margin, Anand said. That is about 420 basis points (4.2 percentage points) lower than a year earlier and 50 basis points lower than the prior quarter. The figure excludes costs from a July fulfillment center fire.

Kim was direct about the trough. "We believe Q3 represents the low point for product commerce adjusted EBITDA margins," he said, repeating that margins should return to roughly pre-incident levels sometime in the middle of next year.

Asked by a Goldman Sachs analyst whether margins would stay sluggish and then jump at the end, Kim said the pace may vary by quarter because of seasonal factors and how fast each drag fades. The mid-next-year destination, he said, is the most important point.

For the fourth quarter, Anand guided consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin up 50 to 150 basis points from the third quarter, helped by lower marketing spend and product commerce progress. He guided constant-currency revenue growth of 13% to 14%. Third-quarter consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $116 million, a 1.2% margin.

## Why Kim calls the drags temporary

Kim named three items: supply chain strain, fixed costs sized for pre-incident demand, and heavy marketing to win back departed customers. He said none is structural, and that the marketing step-up has already begun to taper.

The soft spot in reported growth, he said, is a small group of WOW members, Coupang's paid membership program, who left after the data incident and have not returned. Returning and never-left members are spending at record levels, he said. Once the affected periods are lapped next year, that group drops out of the year-over-year comparison and reported growth converges with underlying spend.

Product commerce revenue was $8.4 billion, up 5% as reported and 8% in constant currency. Consolidated revenue was $10 billion, up 7% as reported and 11% in constant currency, above the 8% to 9% range management had guided. The company recorded about $248 million of fire-related expenses and reported a diluted loss of 28 cents per share, or about 18 cents excluding the fire. It repurchased 13 million Class A shares for about $201 million.

## Taiwan spending moves ahead of demand

Anand said the previously guided full-year developing-offerings loss of $950 million to $1 billion will now have a top end $50 million to $100 million higher, driven mainly by faster infrastructure and supply chain investment in Taiwan. Third-quarter segment losses were $269 million, $50 million more than the prior quarter, on revenue of $1.6 billion, up 27% in constant currency.

Kim said Coupang builds ahead of demand there because infrastructure has long lead times. Taiwan WOW membership grew more than 100% from a year earlier and 14% from the prior quarter, and dawn delivery reaches over 50% of the population. He said Taiwan should become a meaningful contributor to consolidated cash flow in the years to come.

Anand said Eats in Korea and Japan operate at break-even and he does not expect that to change in the foreseeable future.

Coupang will give full-year developing-offerings guidance for next year with its fourth-quarter results, Anand said.

Learn

- [How To Read An Earnings Call Transcript: Start With Guidance, Then Find What's Missing →](https://www.bullished.co/learn/how-to-read-an-earnings-call/)  
How to read an earnings call transcript: check guidance first, look for dropped metrics, compare growth with last quarter, and watch hedged wording.

### More on Coupang

- [Coupang Posts $501 Million Quarterly Loss, And Still Lost $321 Million Without The Fire](https://www.bullished.co/coupang-posts-501-million-quarterly-loss-and-still-lost-321-million-without-the-fire-9e87268f/)

[All Coupang (CPNG) coverage →](https://www.bullished.co/tag/cpng/)