Its subsidiary owes sellers 900 million yuan, and the parent company has set its sights on Wish!

Recently, the fact that two well-known Korean e-commerce platforms, Tmon and WeMakePrice, owed sellers more than 900 million yuan in payments has attracted widespread attention in the industry. The parent company of these two companies is Qoo10, the Singaporean e-commerce platform that previously acquired Wish.

Data shows that the number of users of Tmon and WeMakePrice ranks fourth and fifth in South Korea, with a total of more than 8.6 million users. They are one of the most commonly used platforms for Koreans to buy groceries, go shopping, and buy tickets in their daily lives. In order to expand its territory, Qoo10 acquired these two platforms in 2022 .

As a rule, the platform will pay the seller within two months after the user makes the payment. However, in early July, hundreds of WeMakePrice merchants still had not received the payment from May. The official explanation was that there was a problem with the settlement system, and they promised to pay as soon as possible and provided compensation for delayed delivery. However, before this matter was resolved, Tmon also encountered the same problem.

According to preliminary statistics from relevant Korean departments, the overdue payment has affected about 60,000 sellers, with the total amount of unpaid goods reaching about 170 billion won (about 901 million yuan) . Affected by this, merchants on the two platforms began to refuse to ship goods, and many large retailers also withdrew one after another. Users who purchased large amounts of goods in advance, such as vacation accommodation and travel packages, had to cancel them. After this incident, Korean consumers and sellers said that their trust in Tmon and WeMakePrice had completely collapsed.

On July 28, TMON said that it had canceled 24,600 pre-sale orders for book and cultural product vouchers since July 26. As of the morning of July 28, 600 orders had been canceled and refunds had been processed, with a total refund amount of 10.8 billion won (about 56.61 million yuan). WeMakePrice also said that as of the morning of July 28, the refund process for 3,500 orders had been completed. At the request of the Korean financial sector, quick payment companies and payment gateways will cancel orders from TMON and WeMakePrice consumers starting this week, and the refund speed will be further accelerated.

It is reported that Qoo10 told relevant Korean authorities that it will raise US$50 million (approximately RMB 362 million) through the cross-border e-commerce platform Wish next month . This figure is obviously far from enough to cover the current problems.

Qoo10 representative Gu Yongpei said on July 30 that he would use all his personal assets to stabilize the situation. When asked how much company funds and personal assets he could use, Gu Yongpei said that the company can use 80 billion won (about 420 million yuan) but it is not certain whether he can invest the full amount. He has already invested all his personal assets in the company.

Although Wish was "highly expected" by Gu Yongpei , it was not so peaceful. Recently, a seller revealed that Wish also experienced delayed loan issuance .

Looking back at the beginning of the year, Qoo10’s acquisition of Wish for US$173 million caused a stir. On February 12, it was announced that Wish would be sold, and on April 26, Wish issued a notice to merchants stating that Qoo10’s acquisition of Wish had been completed.

At that time, many industry insiders were optimistic about this combination and believed that Temu might have a heavyweight competitor. However, just three months later, Wish was exposed to delayed loan issuance again.

According to the screenshots provided by the seller, the notification was issued on July 18. It can be inferred that the time when Wishi delayed loan issuance was not too far from the time when Tmon and WeMakePrice defaulted on payments to merchants.

Regarding the compensation method mentioned in the notice, some Wish sellers said, "10% as compensation is so generous, how can Ozon sellers feel embarrassed?" Some sellers also said, "It's good enough that you can give me the principal, and you want more?" Of course, the sellers are most concerned about whether the platform will run away. In this regard, other affected sellers can only say "be careful".

Analysts in the Korean retail industry believe that the company (Qoo10) to which Tmon and WeMakePrice belong was eager to expand its scale and go public, and acquired a large number of e-commerce platforms in Korea and abroad, which led to problems with its capital chain.

It is worth mentioning here that in April this year, there was news that Qoo10 announced that it had signed an agreement with AK Plaza, a subsidiary of Aekyung Group, to acquire the online shopping mall AK Mall for 510 million won (about 2.682 million yuan) through its subsidiary Interpark Commerce.

From Tmon, WeMakePrice to Wish and AK Mall, Qoo10's territory is constantly expanding, but it also brings a lot of hidden dangers to the company's cash flow - and cash flow has always been an important indicator of the survival and development of enterprises . At present, the South Korean government has intervened. On July 29, the Ministry of Planning and Finance of South Korea announced that it would release 560 billion won (about 3 billion yuan) of liquidity funds to solve the debts of WeMakePrice and TMON.

It is worth mentioning that there are also reports that WeMakePrice is seeking to sell its shares in the company to Chinese e-commerce giants AliExpress or Temu.

Qoo10

Delay in payment

Wish