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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean online shopping site Coupang has secured a $1 billion investment from Japanese Internet company Softbank Corp.
Coupang said Wednesday that Softbank founder Masayoshi Son decided to back Coupang because of the South Korean company's delivery system and its market dominance in online shopping via smartphones.
It is the latest foreign bet on Coupang. It received a $400 million investment from two Silicon Valley venture capitalists last year.
Coupang started in 2010 as a website for getting daily discount deals. The company now sells everything from baby products, grocery, flight tickets to cosmetics and hires its own deliverymen. It is owned by Forward Ventures Co.
Half of South Korea's population has downloaded the Coupang app and about two third of transactions with Coupang are done on the app.