Coupang’s Influence Campaign Creates Powerful Washington Allies

A closed-door congressional meeting this week with South Korea’s top trade official was dominated by one topic: Coupang Inc., the Seattle-headquartered e-commerce platform best known as the “Amazon of South Korea.”

Several lawmakers — many of whom had only recently learned about Coupang, which isn’t available to US consumers — peppered Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo with questions about South Korea’s extensive probe into the company following a massive data breachthat affected about 33.7 million customers, roughly 65% of the country’s population.

The questioning comes amid an intense lobbying push by Coupang, which employs just 1,000 people in the ...