The Real Reason Korean Vertical Commerce Platforms Finally Turned a Profit

In 2025, Korea's leading vertical commerce platforms—Kurly, Oasis, Today’s House, and Daangn Market—all announced they had turned a profit. But the key question remains: “What truly made these companies profitable?” This STREAMLINE explores how each player navigated the path to profitability, revealing starkly different strategies beneath the surface.

❶ Point of View | Same Profit, Different Playbooks

Both Kurly and Oasis began with the same model—early morning delivery of groceries—but reached profitability through very different structures.

Kurly posted its first-ever operating profit in Q1 2025: ₩580.7B in revenue and ₩1.76B in profit. The driver? Category expansion (especially in beauty), fulfillment internalization (FBK), and an aggressive 3P (third-party seller) rollout. Kurly now emphasizes scale, brand, and premium service.

Oasis, by contrast, grew leaner. With its proprietary logistics system ‘Oasis Route’ and a vertically integrated supply chain for organic foods, it posted ₩517.1B in revenue and ₩22.9B in operating profit in 2024. Its low-waste, high-margin model was built for efficiency, not scale.

🟣 Kurly chased growth through investment and diversification.
🟢 Oasis optimized an existing structure for stable profitability.

❷ Inside the Move | How Today’s House and Danggeun Made Money

Today’s House turned its first full-year profit in 2024, reporting ₩287.9B in revenue and ₩570M in operating profit. Its margin-focused strategy centered on increasing take rate, introducing delivery fees, and expanding ad revenue through more aggressive fee structures.

Daangn Market posted ₩127.6B in revenue and ₩17.3B in operating profit in 2023, with 99.8% of revenue coming from ads. The secret? Hyperlocal targeting, neighborhood-level business profiles, and expanding verticals like job listings, real estate, and services.

🔵 Both companies didn’t grow by expanding GMV—but by restructuring how they make money within the platform.

❸ Business Playbook | The 3 Paths to Profitability

Structural Profitability

Oasis & Daangn: Low-cost logistics, efficient systems, high-margin products

Transaction Volume Expansion

Kurly: GMV growth, fulfillment infrastructure, category expansion

Fee & Margin Optimization

Today’s House: Take rate improvements, ad growth, logistics fee layering

Each path comes with its trade-offs: scalability vs defensibility, growth vs control.

❹ Market Impact | The Profit Shift in Korean E-Commerce

The market has shifted decisively from GMV-first to profit structure-first.

Investors now look for sustainable business models, not just top-line growth.

Kurly’s premium loyalty program “Kurly Members” now accounts for over 50% of GMV.

Daangn is diversifying away from ads with real estate, jobs, and C2C services.

💡 The era of “buying growth” is ending. The era of monetizing infrastructure is here.

❺ Competitor Matrix

Company	Biz Model	Revenue Drivers	Core Strategy	Profit Approach
Kurly	Direct + Fulfillment	Product margins, ads, memberships	Premium groceries, FBK, 3P, beauty	Scale-based leverage
Oasis	Direct + Offline retail	PB products, supply chain margin	Lean logistics, Oasis Route, zero inventory waste	Operational efficiency
Today’s House	Marketplace + Some Direct Sales	Commissions, ads, delivery fees	Take rate growth, ad platform expansion	Margin optimization
Danggeun Market	Community + Ad platform	Hyperlocal ads	Neighborhood targeting, vertical expansion	Ad-based monetization

❻ Beyond the Numbers | What Comes Next?

🟣 Kurly: Slowing GMV growth is a concern. It’s betting on private labels, same-day delivery, and partnerships (e.g., with Naver).

🟢 Oasis: Needs regional expansion and is exploring AI retail checkout to future-proof its offline strategy.

🔵 Today’s House: Fee hikes risk seller churn. Investments in AI/LLM-based personalization and 3D tools are underway.

🟠 Daangn Market: Its ad-heavy model needs diversification. New revenue models in commerce and services will be key.

❼ Summary Insight | Profit Is Just the Starting Line

All four companies have reached breakeven—but the game has just begun.
What separates survivors from winners is not how much they earned, but how sustainably they earned it.

🧠 Real competition is no longer about “how much profit,” but “how defensible and repeatable is the model behind it.”