Coupang Losses Continued With Spending on New Services

Coupang Inc., South Korea’s leading e-commerce company, reported a wider year-on-year net loss in the third quarter after investment in logistics to support faster deliveries and in streaming video services.

Losses rose to $315.1 million for the period, compared with $216.2 million a year earlier,according to a statement Friday. Revenue climbed 48% to $4.6 billion, while the number of active clients increased 20% to 16.8 million.

The net loss hit $518.6 million in the June quarter, after the company suffered damages from a fire at one of its distribution centers.

Coupang, led by Harvard dropout Bom Kim, went public in March in a blockbuster initial public offering that saw its shares surge more than 40% to a market value of more than $85 billion. Yet shares have since tumbled below the IPO price as losses mount and the company vows to continue spending heavily.

Backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., Coupang has been aggressively expanding its e-commerce business at home and following a playbook from Amazon.com Inc. by entering grocery delivery and streaming video. SoftBanksoldabout $1.69 billion worth of shares in Coupang in September as part of stake sales in listed portfolio companies so that it could inject cash in other technology startups.

Shares have dropped 17% through the close of trading on Thursday.