Coupang outage in South Korea disrupts deliveries, sparks backlash over riders eating undelivered meals

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang suffered a multi-service outage around midnight on Oct. 9 local time, knocking out its shopping platform, Coupang Eats delivery service, and Coupang Play streaming service at the same time. During the disruption, delivery riders who had already picked up food reportedly could not see customer addresses, and a large number of orders were canceled. The outage later drew wider attention after posts appeared on Korean online forums showing riders eating meals that could no longer be delivered. Some users framed the food as items that had effectively been discarded under platform procedures for undeliverable orders, while critics said the photos mocked customers who were left without their meals and unable to contact the service. One widely cited post said, 「I ate an order worth 100,000 won and got charged 20,000 won.」 Coupang said the incident was caused by a temporary error during a service upgrade and ruled out a hacking attack. The company announced compensation for customers, merchants, and riders, including 5,000 won in Coupang Cash for canceled shopping orders, vouchers for canceled or failed food-delivery payments, and payments to riders depending on when a cancellation occurred. Korean media also noted that questions remain over missed orders and lost business during the downtime.