South Korean retail giant Coupang (CPNG.US) provided users with over $1.1 billion in compensation due to data breaches

The Zhitong Finance App learned that South Korean e-commerce retail giant Coupang (CPNG.US) announced that it will provide 1.69 trillion won (about 1.17 billion US dollars) compensation plan to 34 million users affected by last month's large-scale data breach.

The company issued a statement on Monday local time stating that it plans to provide each eligible customer with a voucher worth 50,000 won to purchase various services. Even old users who have cancelled their accounts after the data breach are eligible.

According to the translated text of the Korean version of the statement, users can check whether they are eligible to receive tickets starting January 15 next year.

Coupang's interim CEO Harold Rogers called the move a “responsible approach to customers” and promised that the company would “resolutely fulfill all of its responsibilities.” “Once again, I offer my deepest apologies to the customer,” he said in a statement.

Just the day before Rogers' apology, Coupang founder Kim Bom also publicly apologized, admitting “I am saddened by the disappointment the user experience has experienced.” The data breach, which came to light on November 18, directly led to the resignation of former CEO Park Dae-jun earlier this month.

The US-based board chairman admitted that the company failed to communicate clearly at the beginning of the incident. He stated that the apology “came too late,” and said that his initial idea was to wait until all factual investigations and verifications were completed before making an apology statement in public form.

“Now it seems like a wrong decision. Although the Coupang team worked tirelessly to deal with the crisis, I should have expressed my deepest remorse and sincere apology from the beginning. “From the moment I learned about the data breach, I've always felt a heavy sense of unease,” Kim Bom said.

Kim Bom further explained that by cooperating with government departments and tracking down storage devices held by the suspect, the company has now successfully recovered all leaked user information.

He also specifically pointed out that the customer data stored on the suspect's computer only involved 3,000 records, and that the relevant information was not disseminated or sold to the outside world.