Gmarket
South Korean online marketplace owned by Shinsegae/Emart, now in a JV with Alibaba.
On the record
Checkpoint: H2 2026 GMV and seller-fee overhaul results, testing if growth holds without subsidy
The call
Gmarket is spending Alibaba's money to buy back growth it lost to Coupang and Naver, while AI shopping agents threaten the discovery layer its commissions depend on.
Gmarket is an online marketplace where people buy and sell goods in South Korea, similar to eBay or Amazon. It is hard to compete because the real winners, Coupang and Naver, either own their own delivery trucks (Coupang) or control the search engine people use to find products (Naver), while Gmarket has neither of these strengths. On top of that, new AI shopping tools from Google and others are starting to do the work Gmarket relies on, showing people products and letting them buy, which means fewer people may need to visit Gmarket at all. The one thing that matters most is whether the sales growth Gmarket showed in the first half of 2026 can survive without the constant money being pumped in, and whether it can sell Korean products to Southeast Asia through its partnership with Alibaba before Google's AI shopping tools take over.
Why
01
AI pressure: Google's agentic checkout/Universal Cart and Naver's AI shopping search. AI agents that pick products and check out for shoppers threaten to bypass Gmarket's listing/discovery layer entirely. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Coupang (owned logistics, ~28% share) and Naver (search/traffic, ~16-20% share). Coupang wins on delivery speed, Naver wins on search, and both are actively pulling shoppers and sellers away from Gmarket. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Fresh Alibaba capital and a cross-border seller pipeline into Southeast Asia, but neither is owned or proven yet.
What would change this call
Gmarket's H2 2026 and Q4 2026 GMV growth rate compared to H1 2026's 14%. Shows whether growth is durable or fades once Alibaba JV investment normalizes.
Whether Gmarket's cross-border SE Asia seller count grows past 17,000 toward 100,000. Indicates whether the Alibaba export channel is a real, scaling advantage or stays marginal.
Whether Google's agentic checkout or Naver's AI shopping tools launch broadly in Korea before Gmarket's planned 2026 AI search rollout. Shows whether AI shopping agents bypass Gmarket's discovery layer before it can respond.
Whether Gmarket's cross-border SE Asia seller count grows past 17,000 toward 100,000. Indicates whether the Alibaba export channel is a real, scaling advantage or stays marginal.
Whether Google's agentic checkout or Naver's AI shopping tools launch broadly in Korea before Gmarket's planned 2026 AI search rollout. Shows whether AI shopping agents bypass Gmarket's discovery layer before it can respond.
Key numbers
- H1 2026 GMV up 14%, first growth in 4 years
- 2025 full-year operating loss: 121.7 billion won
- 660,000 sellers on platform, up 5% y/y
Named risks
- AI shopping agents compressing Gmarket's core product discovery layer, per CEO admission June 2026.
- H1 2026 GMV growth may be subsidy-fueled and fade once 700 billion won/year investment normalizes.
- Years of operating losses (121.7B won deficit in 2025) despite JV backing.
- FTC-mandated data firewall between Gmarket and AliExpress Korea limits JV synergy for at least 3 years.
- December 2025 unauthorized-access cybersecurity incident affecting customer data.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Coupang | losing to | Coupang holds ~28% Korean e-commerce transaction share vs Gmarket's low single digits, 2025 |
| Naver | losing to | Naver gaining share (~16-20%) as Coupang stumbles, reported 2026-05-06 |
| AliExpress/Temu | losing to | AliExpress held 37.1% of overseas direct-purchase market vs Gmarket 3.9% pre-merger, 2025 |
| Google agentic commerce | contesting | Google's Universal Cart AI checkout shipped May-July 2026, bypassing marketplace discovery |
Questions people ask
- Is Gmarket profitable in 2026?
- No. Gmarket posted a full-year 2025 operating deficit of 121.7 billion won, following a Q1 2025 operating loss of 12.1 billion won on revenue that fell 21.4% year-on-year to 200.6 billion won, per Korea JoongAng Daily, May 2025.
- Who owns Gmarket?
- Gmarket is owned via Shinsegae Group's Emart, which bought 80.01% of eBay Korea for about 3.44 trillion won in November 2021. Since November 2025, Gmarket sits inside the 50/50 Shinsegae-Alibaba joint venture 'Grand Opus Holding,' chaired by Chung Yong-jin.
- Is Coupang bigger than Gmarket?
- Yes. Coupang holds roughly 28% of Korean retail e-commerce transaction value in 2025, versus Gmarket's low single-digit share, and operates its own logistics network that Gmarket lacks, per market data cited December 2024.
- Could AI shopping agents replace Gmarket?
- Gmarket's own CEO James Jang stated in June 2026 that AI shopping agents will 'compress' product search, comparison and recommendation and could choose and buy for consumers, directly threatening Gmarket's core discovery-driven marketplace model.
- Is Gmarket growing again in 2026?
- Yes, tentatively. H1 2026 gross merchandise volume rose 14% year-on-year, its first growth in four years, following a pledged 700 billion won/year ($510M) investment plan tied to the new Alibaba joint venture, per Maeil Kyungjae, July 2026.
- What happened with Gmarket's Alibaba deal?
- Shinsegae and Alibaba announced a 50/50 joint venture, Grand Opus Holding, in December 2024 valued around 6 trillion won; Korea's FTC conditionally approved it in September 2025, and it began operating in November 2025 with Chung Yong-jin as board chair.
Timeline
- 2026-07-10H1 2026 GMV rose 14% year-on-year, first growth in four years
- 2026-04-16Launched paid 'Kkok' membership tier up to 70,000 won/month
- 2025-12-04Disclosed suspected unauthorized-access cybersecurity incident
- 2025-11-12Grand Opus Holding JV began operating; Chung Yong-jin named board chair
- 2025-09-26James Jang, ex-Lazada executive, appointed Gmarket CEO
- 2025-09-18FTC conditionally approved Shinsegae-Alibaba merger with data firewall
- 2024-12-26Shinsegae and Alibaba announced 50/50 JV valued around 6 trillion won
- 2024-09Gmarket ran its first-ever voluntary retirement program
- 2021-11-14Emart completed 80.01% acquisition of eBay Korea for ~3.44 trillion won
Revision history
22 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- eBay Completes Transfer of its Businesses in Korea to Emart (2021-11-14)
- Shinsegae and Alibaba Forge Alliance to Challenge Coupang and Naver in E-Commerce (2024-12-26)
- A business combination of G Market... has been approved (2025-09-18)
- Chung Yong-jin to chair board of Shinsegae, Alibaba JV (2025-11-12)
- Shinsegae, Alibaba to establish joint venture, challenge Coupang and Naver (2024-12-26)
- Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations (2026-06-30)
- Emart reports best quarterly earnings in 8 years on retail innovations (2025-05-12)
- Gmarket returns to GMV growth after four years (2026-07-10)
- Gmarket recovered its trading volume (GMV) growth... (2026-07-08)
- Gmarket Company & Revenue 2015-2027
- Retail E-Commerce in South Korea
- Naver gains on Coupang stumble as Talpang shifts Korea e-commerce balance (2026-05-06)