WeMakePrice, a South Korean e-commerce platform that filed for corporate rehabilitation after delaying payment to sellers, is seeking to sell the company to Chinese e-commerce giants AliExpress or Temu.
“WeMakePrice plans to propose selling the company to AliExpress and Temu, separately from TMON and Qoo10,” said a senior official at Singapore-based Qoo10, the parent company of cash-strapped TMON and WeMakePrice. The estimated acquisition price for a partial stake is between 50 billion and 100 billion won, or between $3.6 million and $7.3 million.
“Whether it’s 50 billion won or 100 billion won, we will propose a plan to transfer a partial stake to the Chinese company at first, then collaborate in business, and eventually transfer 100% ownership,” the official added. “We will persuade them that acquiring WeMakePrice, which has extensive knowledge of the Korean market, at a low price will benefit the business.” Qoo10 hopes that AliExpress and Temu might be interested in acquiring WeMakePrice since both companies have been aggressively expanding into the Korean market.
AliExpress and Temu had 8.37 million and 8.23 million monthly active users in South Korea as of June, respectively, ranking them second and third after Coupang, according to market tracker Wiseapp. WeMakePrice ranks seventh with 4.32 million monthly active users. TMON and WeMakePrice owes sellers roughly 1 trillion won as of July. “Excluding refunds to consumers, WeMakePrice has yet to settle between 300 billion and 350 billion won with sellers, and TMON owes about twice that amount,” the official said. The government’s estimate for May was 213.4 billion won for both companies, and industry estimates for June and July amounted to 1 trillion won. Qoo10 has now officially confirmed these figures, disclosing that most of the unpaid amount was used in promotions that contributed to losses at both companies.
TMON and WeMakePrice will submit their corporate rehabilitation plans at a closed-door hearing at the Seoul Bankruptcy Court on August 2. The official added, “When they ran out of money to pay sellers, they asked private equity firms holding more than 30% of Qoo10′s stake to provide 10 billion won in support but were rejected.”
