But in the eyes of venture capitalist Eric Kim, Coupang has already been out-Amazoning Amazon in Korea for a while.
SoftBank-backed Coupang, which raised $4.6 billion in IPO proceeds, had an extremely auspicious start on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Shares rocketed as much as 84% intraday before paring gains and closing up 42% on the day.
The ten-year-old company is led by billionaire Bom Kim, who dropped out of Harvard Business School after just six months to capture the massive e-commerce opportunity in South Korea.
Eric Kim first met Bom Kim in 2011, also just six months after Coupang launched. Then, as a managing director at the long/short hedge fund Maverick Capital, Eric led the early-stage investment in Coupang on behalf of Maverick and stayed on the board at Coupang on Maverick s behalf until 2017.