Coupang Play users furious after hour-long streaming outage during Lee Kang-in's debut match

"I signed up for Sports Pass, and then it kept telling me to sign up again — then just gave me an error."

"Some people could watch Lee Kang-in's match, so is it first-come, first-served or what?" (Comments from Coupang Play Sports Pass subscribers)

Coupang Play, locked in a battle with Tving for second place among domestic OTT platforms, found itself at the center of controversy after a streaming outage lasting nearly an hour during prime-time weekend football left subscribers furious.

Paying subscribers were particularly vocal in demanding compensation, given that regular Coupang Inc members pay close to 20,000 won a month for the service. Coupang Play is discussing both compensation and measures to prevent a recurrence.

According to industry sources Monday, Coupang Play went dark for nearly an hour — from 12:07 a.m., when the anomaly was first detected and response efforts began, to 12:47 a.m., when the issue was resolved. A surge in traffic triggered streaming access errors, leaving Sports Pass subscribers unable to watch.

The outage coincided with a match featuring Lee Kang-in of Atletico de Madrid, who recently joined the Spanish La Liga club. The errors are believed to have been caused by a flood of users trying to watch Lee's game.

Paying subscribers vented their frustration widely. Coupang Play had launched a Sports Pass subscription tier for regular members in August last year, priced at 16,600 won per month, with Coupang Wow members able to add the service for an extra 9,900 won per month.

Since June, Sports Pass prices have risen. Regular members now pay 19,300 won a month, while Wow members pay 12,400 won.

The price hike fueled the backlash, with subscribers posting comments such as "They only raised the price and did nothing else," "Can't they even handle overseas football?" and "People who paid for Sports Pass couldn't even use it."

Some subscribers pointed to past cases in which sports channels compensated users for service outages — citing examples such as service-period extensions and coupon giveaways — and called on Coupang Play to offer similar redress.

No compensation provision for access errors was found in Coupang Play's terms of service.

"A temporary spike in traffic caused streaming access errors in some environments," Coupang Play said. "Service is now operating normally across all environments. Coupang Play will do its utmost to provide stable service."