Coupang implements ideas from company hackathon

Coupang has implemented ideas from its fourth annual hackathon held earlier this month, the company said in a press release Friday.

The three-day Coupang CS Hackathon involved over 200 customer service representatives and developers from inside the company. The employees formed teams to develop ideas for new services and included workers from various divisions including distribution centers and delivery drivers.

Among 100 ideas submitted, the company deemed 23 good enough to be immediately used in the field. The grand prize, announced on Dec. 8, went to a team that designed a schedule platform where customer service representatives can keep track of phone calls they make to consumers.

Hackathons are frequently used by tech companies to mine for ideas but remains relatively rare in Korea.

“Coupang’s culture, which allows employees from different business organizations to voluntarily cooperate, will power the company to keep finding innovative solutions for customers,” said Jason Livingston, Coupang’s senior director of customer service. By Song Kyoung-son