Coupang services down for about two hours overnight; company cites service upgrade
In short
The Coupang, Coupang Eats and Coupang Play apps and websites, as well as Coupang's logistics site, had access errors from around midnight on October 9. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported the errors were resolved at around 2:30 a.m. Coupang said a temporary error occurred during a service upgrade.
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Coupang's shopping app and its Coupang Eats and Coupang Play apps, along with their websites, had access errors starting around midnight on October 9, Yonhap, Kyunghyang Shinmun and Dong-A Ilbo reported. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that the errors were resolved at around 2:30 a.m. Dong-A Ilbo said the disruption lasted about two hours and that services are back to normal. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]
At first the services failed from the very first screen, showing only the message "The network connection is unstable. Please check your connection status and try again." From around 1 a.m. the main screen of the Coupang app could be reached, but clicking on a product brought back the same notice. Kyunghyang Shinmun and Dong-A Ilbo reported that logins also failed. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
In a notice on its website and elsewhere, Coupang said that "a temporary error occurred across Coupang's overall services during a service upgrade process, but it has been resolved and services can be used normally," Kyunghyang Shinmun reported. The company also sent text messages saying service was restored to customers who had previously contacted its customer centre. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Coupang believes the error arose during the update and is working to identify the exact cause. Dong-A Ilbo also reported that the error occurred during a service update. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]
Coupang's logistics site also had access errors. Cho Un-sang (조운상), a Coupang delivery driver in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, said he had just finished a drop-off but could not complete the delivery confirmation because of an error. He said he first thought his Wi-Fi was the problem, but other platforms worked normally while only Coupang's shopping site, logistics site and Eats returned errors. Dong-A Ilbo reported that a post on an online community that morning showed Coupang items piled inside a delivery vehicle, with text saying the driver could not carry out deliveries because of the server failure. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
Coupang app user Kim Min-woo (김민우) told Yonhap that both the app and the website had stopped working shortly after midnight. He said this was inconvenient and that he was worried because personal data leaks have happened often recently. An Incheon resident surnamed Jang said they felt uneasy because their bank account details are linked to Coupang. Kyunghyang Shinmun noted that concern about security incidents is high after recent bank hacks, among other cases. [ 1 , 3 ]
Yonhap and Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that the Coupang app has more than 30 million monthly active users and is the top platform in e-commerce. [ 1 , 3 ]
Why it matters
The Coupang app has more than 30 million monthly active users and is the top e-commerce platform, according to Yonhap and Kyunghyang Shinmun. The outage also hit Coupang's logistics site, and a delivery driver said he could not confirm completed deliveries. Users quoted by Yonhap said they were worried about security, and Kyunghyang Shinmun noted high concern about security incidents after recent bank hacks.
Key facts
- Access errors hit the Coupang, Coupang Eats and Coupang Play apps and websites from around midnight on October 9. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- Users saw only the message: "The network connection is unstable. Please check your connection status and try again." [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- From around 1 a.m. the Coupang app's main screen loaded, but clicking a product brought back the same notice. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- Coupang's logistics site also had access errors. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- Kyunghyang Shinmun reported the errors were resolved at around 2:30 a.m. [ 3 ]
- Coupang said a temporary error occurred across its services during a service upgrade. [ 2 , 3 ]
- The Coupang app has more than 30 million monthly active users and is the top platform in e-commerce. [ 1 , 3 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- The Coupang, Coupang Eats and Coupang Play apps and websites had access errors starting around midnight on October 9. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- Coupang's logistics site was also affected. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- The disruption lasted about two hours. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]
- The error was attributed to a service upgrade or update process. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]
- The Coupang app has more than 30 million monthly active users. [ 1 , 3 ]
Still unclear
- The exact cause of the outage Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Coupang believes the error came from the update but is still identifying the exact cause.
- How many users and delivery drivers were affected None of the documents give a number.
What local media are saying
Timeline, local time
- Around midnight, access errors begin on the Coupang, Coupang Eats and Coupang Play apps and websites. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- Around 1 a.m., the Coupang app's main screen loads, but product pages still return the error. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
- Yonhap reports the outage. [ 1 ]
- Around 2:30 a.m., the access errors are resolved, according to Kyunghyang Shinmun. [ 3 ]