The South Korean government on Monday created a ₩560 billion ($445 million) rescue package to rescue merchants using two major e-commerce marketplaces that have failed to forward payments for weeks.
Payment delay at Qoo10's South Korean subsidiary TMON, WeMakePrice causes chaos in the market
The e-commerce services are called WeMakePrice and TMON – both owned by an entity called Qoo10 Group. Launched in South Korea in 2000 as GMarket, Qoo10 is now headquartered in Singapore and also operates in Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea. It is considered one of the region's e-commerce pioneers, but has been largely eclipsed by the likes of Lazada and Shopee.
Problems arose on WeMakePrice and TMON in early July, when merchants using the platforms noticed that payments were not being made. Qoo10 is blaming it on an error in its payment system. However, the problem appears to have persisted – leaving sellers with empty inventory and empty pockets.
"The government calls on WeMakePrice and TMON to take responsibility for this situation and come up with a solution because they are fundamentally at fault and responsible for it," Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) explained. "At the same time, the government has decided to actively support them by mobilizing all available resources to the greatest extent possible to protect honest consumers and sellers as a top priority."
