Coupang, Inc. (CPNG) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

May 9, 2023 5:30 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Ashley, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Coupang 2023 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Parker, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Mike Parker

Thanks, operator. Welcome, everyone, to Coupang's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call.

I'm pleased to be joined on the call today by our Founder and CEO, Bom Kim; and our CFO, Gaurav Anand.

The following discussion, including responses to your questions, reflects management's views as of today's date only. We do not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information, except as required by law. Certain statements made on today's call include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

During today's call, we may present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures, are included in our earnings release slides accompanying this webcast and our SEC filings, which are posted on the company's Investor Relations website.

And now I'll turn the call over to Bom.

Bom Kim

Thanks, everyone, for joining us today.

Before we dive in, here are five key takeaways from a strong start to 2023. First, we continue to deliver results because we focus on what matters most: customer experience and operational excellence. Second, we continued our trend of growing at a high multiple of the overall retail market and taking a significant portion of its growth. Third, we're reigniting active customer growth. Fourth, we continue to drive margin improvements and generated meaningful free cash flow in Q1, a significant milestone. Finally, we're rolling out a new benefit to our WOW members that will drive additional savings for our Eats customers and make WOW even harder to resist.

Before Gaurav goes over our financial results in more detail, I wanted to frame them in the context of our continued opportunity and long-term strategy. As I mentioned, we continue to grow at a high multiple of the overall retail market. And year after year, that trend has continued to accelerate. One reason for that sustained growth is the structure of Korea's retail market, which differs dramatically from that of markets like the U.S.