Naver Acquires Spain's Largest C2C Platform 'Wallapop'

[Financial News] Naver announced on the 5th that it has decided to acquire Wallapop, Spain's largest consumer-to-consumer (C2C) company.
Naver will invest 377 million euros (approximately 604.5 billion won) to additionally acquire a 70.5% stake in Wallapop.
Wallapop, which has more than 19 million MAU, is Spain's largest C2C company, supporting consumer-to-consumer transactions across all areas from daily necessities to electronics and automobiles. In Europe, based on high interest in eco-friendly and circular economy, the usability of C2C services is steadily growing. Among them, Wallapop has recorded continuous growth with user-friendly services since its inception, establishing itself as a representative C2C service in Spain and expanding its business stage to southern European markets such as Italy and Portugal.
Naver has been seeking collaboration by securing about 29.5% of Wallapop shares through two rounds of investments, approximately 155 billion won in 2021 and about 100 billion won in 2023. However, Naver explained that it decided to secure management rights, judging that stronger linkage is needed for full-scale collaboration and synergy creation.
Since 2016, Naver has been developing its European business through indirect investment methods such as fund contributions to Korelia Capital, an investment company founded by Fleur Pellerin, former French Minister of Digital Economy. With this acquisition, Naver plans to more actively expand its business in the European market by applying its technology and business know-how such as search, advertising, payment, and AI to Wallapop.
In particular, Naver plans to further expand its global C2C business, which focuses on North America, Korea, and Japan, to Europe, continuing its global growth trend in the C2C domain.
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said, “Naver has been investing in the European market for the past 10 years, continuously searching for a target to establish a full-fledged partnership,” adding that Wallapop is a strong player that has established itself as a representative of Spain's C2C market amid the threat of global big tech in the global market. Naver will integrate technology and business know-how into Wallapop, adding new usability, and elevating Wallapop's growth to the next level.”
She added, “In an AI ecosystem where the diversity of data becomes a competitive edge, Naver's competitiveness is also expected to be further enhanced.”
Wallapop CEO Rob Cassedy said, “Since Naver's first investment, we have been discussing various ways for synergy and confirmed the strength of Naver's technology and service know-how, and judged it to be the optimal partner for Wallapop's growth.” He added, “Through this acquisition decision, we will secure differentiated service competitiveness by combining Naver's technology and business know-how such as search, advertising, payment, and AI with Wallapop, and further strengthen our position in the European market.”


yjjoe@fnnews.com Yoonju Cho Reporter