Coupang chief executive Park Dae Jun resigns after massive customer data breach

Coupang Inc. announced that Park Dae Jun stepped down as chief executive effective December 10, after the e commerce company disclosed a major data breach that exposed personal information for roughly 33.7 million customer accounts. The resignation came amid mounting public outrage and intensifying scrutiny from regulators and law enforcement over the incident that the company said it first became aware of several weeks earlier.

Coupang and news outlets have described the number of affected records variously as 33 plus million, 33.7 million, and nearly 34 million. The company emphasized that payment information and login credentials were not compromised, but it has not released a fully detailed inventory of the other personal data fields involved. That gap in public detail has fueled concern about the scope of exposure and the potential for downstream fraud and identity theft.

Park, who joined Coupang in 2012 and had served as the company’s sole chief executive since May according to reporting, issued public apologies as the breach unfolded. He told officials and the public he was "deeply sorry for disappointing the public" and that he "feels a deep sense of responsibility for the outbreak and the subsequent recovery process," adding that he had decided to "step down from all positions." Reuters published a photo caption noting that Park apologized at the Government Complex in Seoul on November 30.

Coupang’s U.S. listed parent named Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Harold Rogers as interim chief executive. The parent company said Rogers will focus on stabilizing the organization, overseeing the crisis response, and restoring customer trust. Coupang issued a public pledge to strengthen information security and take every possible step to prevent recurrence, language that was echoed by multiple outlets covering the fallout.

Timelines in reporting differ on initial disclosure. CNBC cited a company statement translated from Korean saying the firm became aware of the incident around November 18, while other outlets, including Koreaherald, said the company publicly confirmed the leak on November 29. Investigative and enforcement activity is ongoing. Some reports, including an account in the Times of India, described police raids on Coupang headquarters and identified a suspect described as a Chinese national. Those details are not uniformly corroborated in the reporting set and remain subject to verification by prosecutors and law enforcement.

The breach underscores growing regulatory and consumer pressure on major technology and retail platforms to secure vast troves of personal data. For Coupang the immediate tasks are mitigation, transparent disclosure, and technical remediation to protect users and meet potential legal and regulatory obligations. The company’s next moves under interim leadership will be closely watched by customers, investors, and Korean authorities as investigations proceed.