"AliExpress and Temu": the real reasons they failed in Korea
- What to look for
- Explore the difference between attracting traffic with cheap products and building a platform for confident repeat purchases. Follow the video’s link between audience metrics and shopping experiences while separating examples from market-wide conclusions.
- Why it matters
- Check whether spending per user uses visitors or purchasers as its denominator and whether periods and transaction coverage match. Compare equivalent specifications, coupons, shipping and returns, and distinguish a local entity’s results from total platform transactions or losses on individual orders.
Timeline
4 segmentsThe narrator interprets spending per user, advertising costs and financial results as evidence that purchases lag traffic. Without checking the denominator and period of spending estimates and the local entity’s revenue recognition and cost scope, these figures cannot directly support platform comparisons or group-wide conclusions. An operating loss also does not establish a loss on every incremental order; financial amounts in the video are not treated here as verified filing data.
An independent exercise, not a statement by the video creator or verification of every claim in the video.
Does lower spending per visitor mean buyers spend less?
Suppose hypothetical platforms A and B each have 1 million deduplicated visitors in the same month. If A converts 20% of visitors into buyers and each buyer pays 50,000 won during the month, total payments are 1 million×20%×50,000=10 billion won, or 10,000 won per visitor. If B converts 50% and buyers pay 30,000 won each, total payments are 15 billion won, or 15,000 won per visitor. A has lower spending per visitor but higher spending per actual buyer. Visitor averages alone therefore do not establish buyers’ purchasing capacity or order value. Monthly spending per buyer also differs from spending per order, so separate repeat-order frequency. Definitions matter for actual data as well: Coupang’s quarterly earnings materials for 2025 define Product Commerce Active Customers as customers placing an order during the quarter, which cannot be directly compared with monthly app visitors. An entity’s recognized revenue is also distinct from total consumer payments.
Check for yourself
- Does the denominator count visiting accounts, purchasing accounts or orders, and how are duplication, web purchases and refunds treated?
- Have monthly visitors been mixed with quarterly buyers, or estimated payments substituted for recognized revenue?
- How do conversion, order frequency and spending after returns differ between newly acquired and returning buyers?
Limits of application
A and B are hypothetical arithmetic comparisons, not actual AliExpress, Temu or Coupang metrics. Payments use matching assumed definitions and do not establish profitability or company value. Original sources for the video’s spending estimates and local-entity financial figures were not verified. Product-test samples do not establish platform-wide defect rates or individual probabilities of health harm.