Coupang: How a Harvard Dropout Built Korea's Most Valuable Startup | CNBC

I’m inside Coupang’s fulfillment center just outside Seoul.

我此刻位于首尔郊外的Coupang物流中心内部。

This company’s been dubbed被称作 the Amazon of South Korea and was recently ranked as the country’s most valuable start-up.

这家公司被誉为“韩国的亚马逊”，最近更被评为该国最有价值的初创企业。

We know the truck it’s gonna go into, the route it’s going to be out on, and then that tells us how it needs to be sorted分类 here and when it needs

我们知道它将被装入哪辆卡车、走哪条路线，这决定了它在这里该如何分拣以及何时需要出发。

to leave.

离开。

That’s propelled推动 founder Bom Kim to billionaire status and made Coupang into a national icon.

这一成就将创始人金炳（Bom Kim）推上了亿万富翁的宝座，并使Coupang成为国家象征。

It’s not an exaggeration to say that we are in every apartment complex and every apartment building at least once a day.

毫不夸张地说，我们每天至少会进入每一个公寓小区和每一栋公寓楼一次。

That’s not bad for a guy who dropped out of Harvard Business School after just six months.

对于一个在哈佛商学院仅读了六个月就退学的人来说，这成绩已相当不错。

I had a belief when I was in grad school that I had a very short window时机 to really make something that had an impact.

我在读研究生时曾坚信，自己只有很短的时间窗口去真正做出有影响力的事。

During a recent visit to Seoul, I got to sit down with the 41-year-old e-commerce CEO at Coupang’s headquarters.

在最近一次造访首尔期间，我有幸在Coupang总部与这位41岁的电商CEO进行了面谈。

And while he may have reached the heights of success now, he says he didn’t exactly set out to become the next Jeff Bezos.

虽然他如今已登上成功的巅峰，但他表示自己当初并非刻意要成为下一个杰夫·贝佐斯。

In fact, when the $9 billion e-commerce giant巨头 started here in Seoul back in 2010, it was as a different business entirely.

事实上，这家价值90亿美元的电商巨头2010年在首尔起步时，其业务模式截然不同。

The shape of Coupang, the business model of Coupang, what Coupang looks like today, went through a lot of change.

Coupang的形态、商业模式以及今日的面貌，都经历了巨大的变革。

When Kim dropped out of business school in the late-2000s, he initially起初 started Coupang as a Groupon-style daily deals business.

金先生在2000年代末从商学院退学后，最初创立Coupang时是一家类似Groupon的每日特惠公司。

But as he noticed the growing scope of technology, he quickly transitioned过渡 the company into a third-party online marketplace.

但随着他注意到科技领域的不断扩张，他迅速将公司转型为第三方在线市场。

It was a success.

这取得了成功。

Within three years, Kim says the company crossed $1 billion in sales and was on the cusp边缘 of an IPO.

金先生表示，三年内公司销售额突破10亿美元，且已处于上市（IPO）的边缘。

But at the eleventh hour, he pulled the deal and radically changed the business model, convinced he could build something better.

但在最后一刻，他叫停了这笔交易并彻底改变了商业模式，因为他坚信自己能构建出更好的东西。

There had been this nagging令人烦恼的 feeling for months, where we had to be honest with ourselves and said, once you go public, it’s much harder to really change your direction.

那几个月里一直有个挥之不去的念头：我们必须诚实面对自己，一旦上市，再想改变方向就会困难得多。

And was the platform we had built, were the services and experiences that we were providing for our customers, creating a 5% difference or were we creating that kind of world where

我们要问的是：我们搭建的平台、提供的服务和体验，究竟只是创造了5%的差异，还是创造了一个能让

the customers we love, their jaws would drop?

我们所珍视的客户惊掉下巴的世界？

And the reality was no.

现实情况是否定的。

If we wanted to provide something that really mattered to customers, we had to go through an enormous amount of change.

如果我们想为客户提供真正重要的东西，就必须经历巨大的变革。

We had to change our entire technology stack堆栈, the way we did business, our business model.

我们必须彻底改变整个技术架构、经营方式以及商业模式。

That’s a bold move when you’re on the crux关键 of an IPO.

当你正处于上市的关键时刻，这是一个大胆的决定。

It was very, very difficult.

这非常、非常艰难。

And I think that was the most difficult, but the choice that I’m most proud of.

我认为那是我最艰难的选择，但也是我最引以为豪的决定。

So Coupang was born again, this time as an end-to-end shopping platform designed to manage the full customer journey, from desktop to door.

因此，Coupang 得以重生，这次转型为端到端的购物平台，旨在管理从桌面浏览到送货上门的全流程客户体验。

South Korea’s e-commerce market has been growing rapidly over the past decade.

过去十年间，韩国的电子商务市场一直在快速增长。

This year, online sales are projected被预测/预计 to expand by 18% to hit over $100 billion, ranking it in fifth place globally after China, the U.S., the U.K.

今年，在线销售额预计将增长18%，突破1000亿美元大关，使其在全球排名第五，仅次于中国、美国、英国。

and Japan.

以及日本。