[THE INVESTOR] Korean online shopping site operators continued to report heavy losses in 2017 amid fierce market competition, regulatory data showed on April 16.

Coupang suffered a combined net loss of 673.5 billion won (US$628.50 million) last year, up 20 percent from 561.8 billion won reported a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Its sales jumped 40 percent on-year to reach 2.68 trillion won during the cited period, but operating losses rose 13 percent to 638.9 billion won, the company said.

The combined net loss of Ticket Monster (TMON) came to 121 billion won last year, down 22 percent from 156 billion won in 2016, it said.

Wemakeprice, another open market operator, logged 47.6 billion won in net losses last year, down 43 percent on-year from 83 billion won in 2016, the company said. Its sales reached 473 billion won, up from 369 billion won in 2016.

Local e-commerce firms have been suffering consecutive years of losses as fierce competition to win over consumers led to excessive discounts and outlays to offer fast-delivery services.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)