Is Coupang the Next MercadoLibre? A Playbook for Global Dominance
Some of the most powerful investment returns come from recognizing a winning business model being replicated in a new global market. For years, investors have watched MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) transform from a simple online marketplace into a Latin American titan of e-commerce and digital payments.
Its success followed a clear script: dominate a region, build an unbeatable logistics network, and then expand into a wide-ranging, high-margin ecosystem.
Today, halfway across the world, South Korea’s e-commerce leader, Coupang (NYSE: CPNG), is executing a strikingly similar strategy with impressive precision. Understanding this playbook is crucial for investors to recognize that Coupang is more than just a regional powerhouse; it is a company with a clear and familiar roadmap for long-term growth.
Step 1: Build a Fortress at Home
Before a company can pursue global ambitions, it must first achieve undisputed leadership in its home market. Coupang has done precisely that, building an e-commerce fortress in South Korea's dense, affluent, and hyper-connected market.
The company’s mastery of this environment has allowed it to attract a massive and loyal user base, reaching 23.9 million active customers in the second quarter of 2025, a 10% increase from the prior year.
Crucially for investors, this is not a "growth at all costs" operation. Coupang’s core business, its Product Commerce segment, is a powerful and profitable engine. In its most recent quarter, this segment alone generated $7.3 billion in revenue and an impressive $663 million in adjusted EBITDA, translating to a healthy 9% margin.
This strong profitability provides a steady stream of capital to fund more ambitious growth ventures, such as international expansion, without an over-reliance on debt or dilutive financing.
This profitable core signals a mature, efficient, and stable operator for the stock, de-risking the overall business and providing a solid foundation for its valuation.
Step 2: Turn Logistics into a Competitive Moat
If profitable, Coupang's proprietary logistics network is its impenetrable moat and the foundation of its core business. In a direct parallel to how MercadoLibre built Mercado Envios to solve the complex logistics puzzle in Latin America, Coupang created Rocket Delivery to master the last mile in South Korea.
By owning and operating its end-to-end logistics infrastructure (from strategically located fulfillment centers to its dedicated fleet of delivery drivers), Coupang offers a level of service that competitors find nearly impossible to replicate.
This capital-intensive network is a massive barrier to entry.
The results of this strategy are clear and impactful. The company’s signature same-day and next-morning delivery services are so popular that their volume grew by more than 40% year-over-year in the last quarter.
This creates immense customer loyalty; once users become accustomed to receiving orders placed at midnight by seven the next morning, switching to a slower competitor becomes a non-starter.
Furthermore, Coupang deepens this moat through its Fulfillment and Logistics by Coupang (FLC) service. By allowing third-party sellers to leverage its powerful network, FLC creates a classic flywheel effect: more sellers join, product selection expands, and more buyers are drawn to the platform.
For investors, this logistics fortress is arguably the company’s most valuable asset. It ensures high customer retention and justifies the premium valuation the stock often commands.
Step 3: Launching the Flywheel for Global Growth
With its profitable fortress and deep logistics moat secure, Coupang is now executing the third part of the playbook: launching a growth flywheel through ecosystem expansion and international conquest. The company’s Developing Offerings segment, which posted a 33% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.2 billion, is the engine of this forward-looking strategy.
This ecosystem comprises high-growth ventures, including the food delivery service Coupang Eats and the video streaming platform Coupang Play. These services are brilliantly tied together through the WOW membership program. This subscription functions like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Prime to lock in customers with valuable benefits.
This strategy mirrors MercadoLibre’s expansion into its wildly successful fintech arm, Mercado Pago, which evolved from a payment solution into a multi-billion-dollar business that is now a core pillar of MercadoLibre’s valuation.
This growth blueprint is now being deployed internationally. Coupang’s expansion into Taiwan has been a phenomenal success, with revenues experiencing triple-digit year-over-year growth and a 54% surge in a single quarter.
This achievement has given management the confidence to increase its full-year investment in Developing Offerings. For investors, this should be viewed as a bullish signal, a strategic deployment of capital into a proven, high-growth opportunity.
Success in these new ventures is what powers the long-term investment thesis, offering a clear path to new, high-margin revenue streams and a vastly larger addressable market.
A Familiar Script for Future Growth
The strategy parallels are clear and compelling. By establishing a profitable core, building an insurmountable logistics moat, and launching an ambitious ecosystem and expansion plan, Coupang is following a well-known script for success.
For long-term investors searching for the next great global growth story, Coupang is a company executing a proven playbook with remarkable focus and discipline.
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