Tech
More US investors sue South Korean government over handling of Coupang data breach
Coupang’s massive data breach in South Korea has now become a geopolitical flashpoint as a growing number of the company’s U.S. investors take legal action against the South Korean government.
What began as a regulatory investigation into data security failures has expanded into a broader dispute over alleged unfair treatment of the U.S.-headquartered company.
While Coupang — which operates in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan — is often referred to as the “Amazon of South Korea,” its worldwide headquarters are actually in Seattle, Washington.
The company’s investors are now seeking international arbitration under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). On January 23, 2026, U.S. investment firms Greenoaks and Altimeter filed a notice with South Korea’s Ministry of Justice, saying they suffered losses from what they characterized as the government’s discriminatory investigation into the data breach. They said they plan to pursue investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) arbitration under the U.S.-Korea FTA.
South Korea’s Ministry of Justice said Thursday that three more investors, including Abrams Capital, Durable Capital Partners, and Foxhaven Asset Management have now joined the case. They are alleging the government acted unlawfully toward the e-commerce company.
To recap the incident: In December, Coupang disclosed that nearly 34 million Korean customers’ personal information had been leaked in a data breach that had been going on for more than five months. The breach involved customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and certain order histories, the company said.
While other tech breaches in Korea resulted in less severe penalties, Coupang has faced extraordinary government pressure. The government reportedly threatened massive fines, suspension of operations, and travel bans for executives while Coupang’s investors allege it also sought to block public communication and repeatedly misrepresented the scope of the breach.
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Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said that more than 30 million Coupang accounts were exposed — but the facts point to just 3,000 affected accounts, according to Coupang’s investors.
In December, South Korea’s government and the PIPC said the Coupang breach was serious enough to justify higher fines. Under current law, penalties are capped at 3% of revenue, more than $800 million for Coupang, according to the U.S. investors, but some lawmakers have proposed raising the limit to 10% and applying it retroactively.
Even if the new law passes, it wouldn’t apply to Coupang, since the breach occurred before the rules changed. But a Democratic Party lawmaker in the country suggested imposing punitive fines, through either new legislation or a special parliamentary act, and PIPC backed the idea, per news reports. South Korean president Lee Jae Myung also publicly called for heavy penalties, suggesting the company had not faced sufficient consequences.
Based on the notice of intent filing released by the investors’ legal adviser, the investors argue that the South Korean government’s actions constitute an “unprecedented assault” on Coupang. In the filing, they argue:
The Government’s unprecedented assault on a U.S. company to benefit its Korean and Chinese competitors is an egregious violation of the Treaty, principles of international law, and the historic partnership between Korea and the United States … The Government’s shocking conduct has left the U.S. investors with no choice. If the Government does not immediately cease its attacks against Coupang, fully restore the company’s ability to operate its business, and permanently end its longstanding campaign of discrimination against the company, then the U.S. investors will be forced to seek billions of dollars in damages from Korea to protect their investments in Coupang and remedy the Government’s ongoing Treaty violations, including attempted expropriation.
The filing is a preliminary, pre-litigation step. South Korea’s Ministry of Justice is now reviewing the notice of intent, which kicks off a mandatory 90-day consultation period before formal arbitration can begin.
Coupang, Abrams Capital, and Foxhaven Asset Management did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Durable Capital Partners could not be reached.
According to the investors’ filing, South Korea’s handling of data breaches has been inconsistent, specifically citing other recent data breaches in South Korea, including KakaoPay, SK Telecom, Upbit, and Alibaba’s AliExpress.
KakaoPay reportedly transferred 54 billion customer records to Alipay Singapore, yet faced only a $10 million fine and a CEO warning, while SK Telecom was fined $91 million after a massive SIM card breach. Upbit and AliExpress also saw minimal government action. The investors say these examples underscore the stark contrast with the government’s response to Coupang.
South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday that the Coupang data breach was carried out by a former employee who had worked on the company’s authentication systems and was aware of vulnerabilities in both the authentication framework and key management system.
The Ministry alleges that Coupang failed to report the breach to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) within 24 hours and did not fully implement a November 2025 data preservation order, leading to the deletion of key web and app access logs. The ministry has referred the matter to investigators and ordered Coupang to submit a prevention plan by February 2026, with compliance monitored through July.
Coupang released a statement, saying that the employee, a Chinese national, accessed data from over 33 million accounts but retained only about 3,000 before deleting it, and that no sensitive info such as payment data, passwords, or government IDs was accessed.
Coupang also replaced its CEO, Park Dae-jun, with Harold Rogers, its U.S. parent’s top lawyer, in December.
Adam Farrar, senior associate at CSIS and senior geoeconomics analyst for APAC at Bloomberg, said on Tuesday’s Impossible State podcast that what began as a major data breach involving Coupang has grown into a broader issue between the United States and South Korea.
Farrar said that the case is amplifying broader U.S. claims of unfair treatment toward American technology firms, raising trade and tariff risks for South Korea as the U.S. Congress becomes increasingly engaged.
“The massive data breach [by Coupang] led to a series of investigations in the National Assembly and some very combative back and forth with Coupang and a series of executives over the past several months,” Farrar said in the podcast. “The additional dynamic here is that Coupang, while driving almost all of its earnings from Korea, is now a U.S.-based company that adds to the dynamic on both sides, impacting how they’re perceived and seen.”
The issue extends beyond Coupang, raising broader questions about whether South Korea is unfairly targeting U.S. companies, Farrar continued.
Critics point to digital policies they say favor domestic firms, including network usage fees on content providers like Netflix, Apple’s App Store and Google Play payment rules, and data localization requirements that limit services like Google Maps on national security grounds.
Tech
Roku to launch streaming bundles as part of its efforts to continue growing its profitability
Roku shared its fourth-quarter earnings for 2025 this week, as well as some exciting plans in the pipeline. The company is rolling out new streaming bundles, expanding its $3 subscription service, Howdy, to more platforms, and partnering with more premium streaming services following the successful addition of HBO Max.
Launching bundles in 2026 is a smart move, as it could attract more viewers looking for enticing deals amid rising subscription prices. Many streaming platforms have been increasing their rates recently, and Roku aims to appeal to cost-conscious consumers. The positive impact of HBO Max on Roku’s premium subscriptions has encouraged the company to continue this strategy by adding more top-tier partners, which is likely to drive growth going forward.
Additionally, Roku launched its ad-free subscription streaming service, Howdy, last year and plans to expand its availability beyond the Roku platform. While specific details remain undisclosed, Roku CEO Anthony Wood stated at CES last month that the goal is to distribute Howdy widely, saying, “We want to distribute it everywhere.”
Other highlights include Roku users streaming 145.6 billion hours of video in 2025, marking a 15% increase from 2024. The company is also nearing the milestone of 100 million streaming households, though it has decided to report this figure less frequently.
Financially, Roku delivered an impressive quarter, posting net income of $80.5 million, a rebound from a $35.5 million loss in the same period last year. Total revenue for Q4 2025 reached $1.4 billion, representing a 16% year-over-year increase.
Looking ahead, Roku is optimistic, projecting total net revenue of $5.5 billion and gross profit of $2.4 billion.
“In 2023, our priority was to rightsize our cost structure and reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in 2024, and we achieved that goal a full year ahead of schedule,” Wood told investors during the call yesterday afternoon. “Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we are confident in our ability to sustain double-digit platform revenue growth while continuing to grow profitability.”
Tech
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads mocking AI with ads helped push Claude’s app into the top 10
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads — which feature darkly comedic scenarios of people seeking advice from chatbots, only to be steered to “cougar” dating sites and height-boosting insoles — have been paying off. In the days since, Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude has climbed from No. 41 on the U.S. App Store to become a top 10 app. As of Friday, Claude sits at No. 7 — its highest rank to date — suggesting its “no ads” pitch resonates strongly with users.
According to new data from market intelligence provider Appfigures, Claude’s U.S. downloads across both iOS and Android totaled an estimated 148,000 from Sunday through Tuesday — the most recent data available. That’s a 32% increase from the preceding three days, Thursday through Saturday, where downloads totaled approximately 112,000.
Claude’s daily average number of downloads from Sunday through Tuesday was 49,200, up 32% from the usual Sunday through Tuesday average of 37,400 per day.
The numbers suggest that Anthropic’s Super Bowl commercials, combined with Anthropic’s recent release of its new Opus 4.6 model, worked to drive attention to Claude’s app and its key differentiator from ChatGPT. The latter rolled out ads to free users this week, just as Anthropic’s ads had warned.
As a result, Claude’s app is gaining more attention than it did when it first debuted on mobile.
The consumer-focused AI app arrived on iOS in May 2024 to a fairly tepid reception. ChatGPT had beaten it to market on mobile devices and had grown to nearly half a million installs in its first five days. By comparison, Claude had only pulled in 157,000 total global downloads within its first week and didn’t reach a rank higher than No. 55 on the U.S. App Store.
Globally, Claude saw some gains this past week, too. Overall worldwide downloads of Claude across both the App Store and Google Play grew 15% from Sunday to Tuesday versus last Thursday to Saturday. However, this was less than half the gains seen in the U.S., Appfigures noted.
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Tech
India partners with Alibaba.com for export push despite past China tech bans
India’s government has partnered with China’s Alibaba.com on an export-focused program aimed at helping startups and small businesses reach overseas buyers. The move highlights New Delhi’s selective engagement with Chinese-linked tech platforms years after it imposed sweeping bans on consumer apps and games.
This week, the Indian government’s Startup India initiative announced the collaboration with Alibaba.com to identify and support Indian startups that can help onboard and scale Indian exporters on the group’s global B2B platform. The program offers commissions and technical support to those startups to assist small manufacturers and traders in reaching overseas markets.
The new partnership arrives after years of strained India–China relations. New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese-linked apps in 2020 following a deadly border clash, including major platforms such as TikTok, PUBG Mobile, and AliExpress, an e-commerce app operated by Alibaba Group. Those restrictions remain in place, making the Indian government’s public collaboration with Alibaba’s export-focused platform a carefully circumscribed form of engagement rather than a broader policy reset.
India’s export ambitions are closely tied to its small businesses and the platforms they use to reach overseas markets. Micro, small, and medium enterprises account for nearly half of the country’s exports and about 31% of GDP, according to the Indian government’s latest Economic Survey, underlining why New Delhi has focused on expanding digital market access for smaller firms through global B2B channels, including Alibaba.com.
Alibaba.com’s B2B platform connects more than 50 million active buyers across over 200 countries and regions, said Rocky Lu, head of India business at the company.
“Alibaba.com has been active in India for over two decades, and we remain dedicated to our core mission of empowering MSMEs to scale their businesses globally,” Lu told TechCrunch. “Our focus continues to be on leveraging our digital infrastructure to help ‘Made in India’ products reach an international audience through digital transformation.”
Lu did not confirm whether the Startup India initiative marks Alibaba.com’s first direct partnership with India’s federal government since 2020. He said, however, that the company has “maintained a consistent cadence of engagement with various government and semi-government bodies integral to the Indian export ecosystem,” including through digital training programs for MSMEs and collaborations with export promotion councils.
The partnership reflects India’s differentiated approach toward China, maintaining restrictions in strategic and security-sensitive sectors while allowing economic engagement where there is clear benefit, said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of the New Delhi-based public policy think tank The Dialogue.
“Going forward, regulatory clarity will be important,” Rizvi told TechCrunch. “Predictable policy environments will help ensure that startups feel confident participating in such initiatives.”
The Indian government seems to be drawing a distinction between export-focused platforms and consumer-facing Chinese apps, said George Chen, partner and co-chair of the digital practice at The Asia Group, a Washington-based consultancy that advises companies on policy and geopolitical risks across Asia. Chen, who previously served as a regional public policy director at Meta, said New Delhi sees value in Alibaba’s role in supporting B2B exports, particularly given the platform’s reach in markets such as Africa, which could help Indian exporters diversify their global sales.
India appears to be drawing lessons from China’s approach to digital platforms, Chen told TechCrunch.
“China bans foreign apps like Facebook and Instagram for Chinese individual users but still allows Facebook and Google to do business with Chinese companies, especially exporters who rely on those platforms to sell products abroad,” Chen said.
The Startup India collaboration follows other recent steps by Alibaba.com to expand export-focused services in India. In June 2025, the company launched its Trade Assurance program in the country, aimed at helping Indian small and medium-sized exporters manage risks in cross-border transactions through payment protection and dispute-resolution tools.
The developments also come as India and China show tentative signs of improved engagement in multilateral technology forums, with Chinese representatives expected to attend the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi next week. Indian officials, however, have not indicated any change to restrictions on Chinese consumer technology platforms.
The Indian commerce ministry did not respond to a request for comments.
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