11Street reports $95 million losses despite record revenue

[Courtesy of 11Street Co.]

South Korean e-commerce platform 11Street Co. disclosed operating losses of 125.8 billion won ($94.74 million) for 2023, or a 17 percent decrease from the previous year‘s 151.5 billion won, the company said on Friday.

But sales surged by 10 percent to 865.5 billion won, setting a new record. Quarterly sales totaled 263.5 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, with operating losses at 34.8 billion won. Despite a sales dip compared to the same period in 2022, operating losses decreased by 24 percent, reducing the operating loss rate to 13.2 percent, and was the lowest since the second quarter of 2021.

“Our efforts to cut costs and achieve profitability by 2025 yielded results,” the company said.

The e-commerce platform reported positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) from its open market business in January 2024, alongside its positive EBITDA figures between May and July as well as December 2023.

Based on these accomplishments, the company is aiming for operating profits in its open market business in 2024 and extending this to the entire business by 2025.

“We will fortify our fundamentals and enhance competitiveness, aiming to reposition ourselves to have a higher value than now,” Chief Executive Officer Ahn Jung-eun said, expressing confidence that continuous efforts to improve profitability will yield profits in 2025.

11Street is currently undergoing a resale process led by financial investors, with the reported selling price expected to be in the 500 billion won range. Market insiders speculate that potential candidates for the acquisition include Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, Singapore-based multinational e-commerce company Qoo10 Pte, and the U.S’ Amazon.com Inc.