Consumers blame OTT service for Coupang membership fee hike
Coupang Play wins a bid to relay the Korean national football team's international matches exclusively online from 2021. Courtesy of CoupangBy Kim Jae-heunSome consumers are urging Coupang to get rid of its money-losing over-the-top (OTT) service, which they blame for the planned price hike of online retailer's membership from 2,900 won to 4,990 won in June, according to industry analysts Monday. Korea's largest e-commerce firm by sales raised the membership price for newcomers as of Dec. 30. Existing users were excluded from the price increase. However, after Coupang's operating loss accumulated to an all-time-high of over 6 trillion won in 2021, it decided to charge the same fee for everyone. “I think the price of Coupang's membership became expensive because of Coupang Play, which I don't use. Most people already use Netflix or Disney Plus. I hope that Coupang stops operating its OTT service and instead, increase its membership price by small amount,” 33-year-old Jang said. Coupang has been freezing its membership price since the launch of the program back in 2008. Its
