The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Financial decision · 1996–2025
Korea's first-generation e-commerce pioneer Interpark Commerce declared bankrupt in 2025
Interpark Commerce, once Korea's No.1 e-commerce company, was declared bankrupt in December 2025 after its rehabilitation procedure was abolished.
Interpark Commerce (인터파크커머스) · 2025-12
What happened
Interpark was Korea's first e-commerce company, founded in 1996 and listed on KOSDAQ in 1999 as the first domestic e-commerce listing. It earned the nickname 'Korea's Amazon' with its aggressive free book shipping policy, entered ticketing in the early 2000s, and grew to hold the No. 1 market share in the industry. Revenue peaked at ₩3.85 trillion in 2016.
The decline was long and steady. Revenue fell to ₩3.17 trillion by 2020, when operating profit turned to a loss of ₩11.1 billion. In 2021 Yanolja acquired Interpark's online businesses and kept the travel, ticket and books arms; in 2023 the shopping division, renamed Interpark Commerce, was transferred to the QooTen group. The company reported an operating loss of ₩22.9 billion in 2024, while its market share slid from No. 1 to 2.4%, then 0.9% by 2023, with revenue shrunk to ₩100 billion.
Interpark Commerce entered corporate rehabilitation in November 2024, months after the July 2024 TMON·Wemakeprice settlement crisis — roughly ₩1.3 trillion in unpaid and refund damages affecting about 48,000 sellers — shattered trust in Korean e-commerce platforms. The company missed the 28 November 2025 deadline to submit a rehabilitation plan. On 1 December 2025 the Seoul Bankruptcy Court abolished the procedure, ruling that there was no prospect of a plan and that the liquidation value exceeded the going-concern value, and declared the company bankrupt in the same ruling.
Why it happened
- Interpark lost the scale race: rivals with stronger logistics and ecosystems overtook it, market share fell from No. 1 to under 1%, revenue shrank from a ₩3.85 trillion peak to ₩100 billion by 2023.
- Years of operating losses left no financial buffer — ₩11.1 billion in 2020, ₩22.9 billion in 2024 — and no rehabilitation plan existed that could reverse them.
- The QooTen group transfer tied the company to a group in crisis: the July 2024 TMON·Wemakeprice settlement scandal spread distrust across the group's marketplaces and made a turnaround impossible.
- The court's own finding — liquidation value exceeded going-concern value — meant the business was worth more dead than alive; no plan or acquirer could justify keeping it running.
The lesson
Being first is no moat: Interpark pioneered Korean e-commerce, then lost the scale race, and by the end the court found the company worth more liquidated than alive.
Aftermath
The Seoul Bankruptcy Court declared Interpark Commerce bankrupt on 1 December 2025, in the same ruling that abolished its rehabilitation procedure. The court found the liquidation value exceeded its going-concern value; no rehabilitation plan had been filed by the 28 November deadline. The collapse followed the July 2024 settlement crisis at QooTen group marketplaces TMON and Wemakeprice — roughly ₩1.3 trillion in unpaid and refund damages, about 48,000 sellers affected. The company that once led Korea's e-commerce market ended in the same wave that brought down Wemakeprice in November 2025.
Sources
- Chosun Ilbo — Court abolishes Interpark Commerce's rehabilitation and declares bankruptcy (2025-12-01)
- Bizwatch — Interpark Commerce heads toward bankruptcy after rehabilitation abolished (2025-12-02)
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