TMON turns a profit, says it’s going public

While many businesses have struggled during the coronavirus outbreak, e-commerce company TMON said it had its first operating profit last month.

The e-commerce operator also says it plans to go public in 2021, after a decade in operation.

TMON on Thursday announced 160 million won ($143,000) in operating profit in March. The company, also known as Ticket Monster, declined to provide its net profits or losses for the month.

The company’s average monthly loss in the first quarter last year was 10 billion won.

TMON said it expects the profit to continue throughout the year.

Choi Yang-hwan, a spokesperson for TMON, said the Covid-19 outbreak wasn’t the primary boost for raising profit last month. While the epidemic in Korea has driven a widely reported jump in e-commerce sales, Choi said the crisis has also negatively affected its travel products.

“Since we adopted a new selling system last year, we have seen the number of sellers rise, who offer the lowest price,” Choi said, referring to the company’s “time commerce” system.

The system provides sellers in TMON’s marketplace with free visibility for their products for a limited amount of time.

E-commerce giant Coupang posted a more than 1 trillion won operating loss in 2018.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]