SoftBank’s Son aims to bring Coupang services to Japan

SoftBank Vision Fund, which is run by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son (picture), is planning to bring Coupang’s “Rocket Delivery” service to the Japanese e-commerce market.

According to Reuters on Monday (local time), the billionaire technology entrepreneur said in a television interview that he is discussing with Yahoo Japan whether Coupang’s services could be done in Japan as well. This has raised speculation that Coupang might make entry into the Japanese market. SoftBank, however, announced the next day that Coupang is not making entry into Japan but it is considering bringing similar services to Japan.

Son’s idea appears to be aimed at strengthening the country’s e-commerce business by applying Coupang’s “Rocket Delivery” model in Yahoo Japan. Japan was the world’s fourth largest e-commerce market as of 2019 with about 19.36 trillion yen, following China, the U.S., and the U.K. Although it has continued to grow by nearly 10 percent every year, its share of the entire retail market is still less than half that of Korea (about 30%). This also means that the Japanese e-commerce market has high growth potential.


Tae-Ho Hwang taeho@donga.com