In 2012, a Korean consultant in his 20s working at a British consulting firm received an offer from a German investor and decided to launch an e-commerce company in the Philippines. The first step was to benchmark the world's leading e-commerce players. The shortlist came down to Amazon in the United States, Taobao in China, Rakuten in Japan, Flipkart in India and Gmarket in South Korea.
Of those, he wanted to see Gmarket up close. He traveled to Korea and, through an acquaintance, arranged a tour of Gmarket's logistics center in Dongtan. He took notes on how goods moved in and out, and memorized every step from order to delivery. He also examined the mobile interface and user experience. Perhaps that early connection mattered: the entrepreneur who came to Dongtan to learn 14 years ago took the top job at Gmarket last year. That person is James Chang, whose Korean name is Chang Seung-hwan.
Lazada, the company Chang co-founded as its Philippines head, grew into a leading Southeast Asian e-commerce platform and was acquired by China's Alibaba Group in 2016. Chang went on to serve as Lazada's country head in Singapore and Indonesia, and reconnected with Gmarket in late 2024 when Alibaba Group joined hands with Shinsegae Group to pursue a joint investment in the company.
Meeting with Seoul Economic Daily on the 21st, Chang said it was personally meaningful to lead a platform he had long admired and learned from. "We are making bold investments because we have to prepare for the market that is coming and upgrade the platform," he said.
Less than a year into his tenure, several of Gmarket's key metrics have turned around. Transaction volume on the site rose 14% in the first half from a year earlier, the first increase in four years. Average monthly spending per customer climbed 12% and the purchase conversion rate rose 14%. The number of sellers on the platform reached 660,000, up 5% from a year earlier.
Chang is focused above all on technical preparation for the artificial intelligence era. "Short-term growth matters because it instills confidence in the market, sellers, employees and customers," he said. "But right now is the moment to lay the long-term technology foundation for Gmarket to move to the next stage, which is AI."
"The e-commerce industry has passed through two inflection points: the shift to mobile and algorithmic personalization," Chang said. "Through that period, Gmarket responded by adjusting at the service level instead of building the underlying technology, and that remains as tech debt."
He acknowledged that until recently, Gmarket's app did not deliver personalized recommendations. When a shopper searched for jeans, everyone was shown the same jeans regardless of age or gender. "E-commerce is an industry made up of digital technology and the commerce business," Chang said, stressing the need for investment. "Once you fall behind on technology, you reach a point where you can no longer catch up through the business side."
Chang sees the current rise of AI as an opportune moment for a technology overhaul, precisely because no one has established a decisive lead and everyone has to invest again. "When there is a shift this large, there is no guarantee the existing leader wins," he said. "If it is a major investment you have to make once anyway, now — when the technology is changing and the paradigm is shifting — is the right time."
Chang argued in particular that open-marketplace e-commerce will come to the fore if an AI commerce era arrives. That view runs against the current structure of Korea's e-commerce market, which is led by the direct-purchasing model associated with Coupang. "For an AI agent to present precisely the right product for a customer's experience, it needs enormous product variety and data on the back end," he said. "In that sense, the advantages of an open-marketplace platform could stand out even more in the AI era ahead."
He said he sees potential in the various data assets Gmarket has built up over its long history. "Not many platforms have this much product, seller and customer data, and this much history," Chang said.
He also described Gmarket's revenue structure — centered on transaction commissions rather than advertising — as "AI agent friendly." In an era when thousands of AI shopping agents roam various platforms in search of the right product, his analysis is that shopping platforms whose main revenue comes from advertising will hardly welcome AI visits in place of human ones. Gmarket, by contrast, has relatively little advertising revenue to protect and can therefore keep its doors open to multiple shopping agents.
On that basis, Chang believes Gmarket can position itself as a wholesaler of the AI era. "We can build data integration structures so that AI agents can make more use of Gmarket," he said. "If we supply products to agents like a wholesaler, we are not fighting with the single Gmarket app — we can compete alongside countless AI agents."
Even so, Chang stressed that areas where consumers shop for themselves will remain even as AI agents become widespread. "It will split into a structure where AI handles errand-like shopping and consumers handle enjoyable shopping," he said. So where does shopping for enjoyment lie? The categories Chang named were fashion, beauty, food, leisure and hobbies.
Accordingly, Chang said Gmarket will build up its beauty segment as a strategic priority. "We simply have not announced it externally yet, but the internal alignment is done," he said. "We will pursue a range of measures so that Gmarket comes to mind when people are deciding where to buy or where to sell beauty products."
Chang also said Gmarket will launch a project tentatively called "G Mall" early next year as a near-term business plan. G Mall is an internal code name rather than a finalized brand, covering products that carry Gmarket's guarantee. "It is a curation that Gmarket guarantees, a promise to the customer," he said. "It is like a certificate that Gmarket attaches to a product."
G Mall has two goals: giving brands that are weighing whether to join an open marketplace the confidence to do so, and at the same time offering a wider range of customer experiences. "For a total platform that handles many product categories, being chosen as the default shopping app is what matters," Chang said. "Through G Mall, we increase the value consumers get from using the platform and create a reason for Gmarket to exist in this market."
"To satisfy the wide range of purchase motives that everyone has, you need diverse products and the right technology," Chang said. "If we build a larger ecosystem and keep upgrading our technology, the opportunity will come to Gmarket." Asked about plans for an initial public offering, Chang said: "Of course we could do it, and we are keeping the possibility open, but we are not thinking about it now. An IPO is not the goal, and it could get in the way of focusing on our tasks."
The goal Chang has in view may be to restore the standing that Gmarket held when he admired it 14 years ago — the kind of company that a first-time founder flies in from abroad to study, even in an era of AI commerce. "The Gmarket I dream of is one that becomes the leader of this market again," he said. "Leading new things, contributing to the direction of the market and being able to build that path — I think that is the greatest form of leadership."
He is… △Born in Seoul, 1985 △Business administration, University of Western Ontario, Canada △2008, Accenture management consulting (U.K. and Canada) △March 2012, co-founder, Lazada Philippines △June 2014, head of international business, Lazada Group △2018, chief executive officer, Lazada Singapore △2021, chief business officer, Lazada Group △July 2023, chief executive officer, Lazada Indonesia △September 2025, chief executive officer, Gmarket
