Bom Kim, founder and chief executive officer of Coupang.
Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
Coupang is preparing for a U.S. listing that could value the South Korean e-commerce giant at more than $50 billion. It’s another milestone for Coupang’s 42-year-old billionaire founder Bom Kim, who has been leading the company since 2010.
Dubbed the Amazon of South Korea, Coupang’s IPO would be the largest U.S. listing by a foreign company since Alibaba’s blockbuster debut in 2014.
Coupang has grown by cutting prices and speeding up deliveries. It offers same-day and next-day delivery of groceries and general merchandise. It delivers prepared foods through the name Coupang Eats and offers video streaming under the label Coupang Play.
In late 2018, Coupang raised $2 billion from Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund. The investment valued the company at $9 billion valuation, making it Korea’s most valuable startup. “We don’t want to…