Qoo10 Pte. is poised to acquire Wemakeprice Inc., a Korean social commerce platform, after the Singapore-based e-commerce platform bought TMON Inc in September for 200 billion won ($153.9 million) and is said to have almost completed its bid to acquire Interpark Corp.’s commerce division.

When the company signs an agreement with WeMakePrice early next month, Korea’s first-generation e-commerce platforms will all be under Qoo10, whose market share is expected to reach a lower 10 percent range, surpassing SK telecom Co.’s e-commerce platform 11Street Co. and leaping to the top 4 in the industry.

According to industry insiders on Tuesday, Qoo10 Chief Executive Officer Ku Young-bae will personally conclude the acquisition of Wemakeprice this week, less than three months after the company approached Wemakeprice in January.

Wemakeprice, which led the first-generation e-commerce in the 2010s along with Coupang Inc. and TIMON, has been struggling with declining sales in recent years. Unlike other e-commerce platforms that increased sales during Covid, its sales fell to 244.8 billion won in 2021 from 385.3 billion won in 2020 and 465.3 billion won in 2019. It sought a turnaround by naming Ha Song as its new CEO.

In particular, Wemakeprice spent most of the 250 billion won that it had received from its top shareholder Wonder Holdings Pty Ltd., which owns an 86.2% stake, out of the 350 billion won the latter got from gaming giant Nexon Korea Co. in 2019. Hur Min, chairman of Wonder Holdings, decided to sell the e-commerce platform as it was difficult for it to receive large-scale investments. Qoo10 is expected to conclude the deal with Wemakeprice through a stock swap deal, like it did when acquiring TIMON.

Qoo10 is a Southeast Asian-based global e-commerce platform established by Gmarket Inc. founder Ku. He joined Interpark in 1999 and established an in-house venture Gusdaq before changing its name to Gmarket. In the open market, which was dominated by Auction Co., Gmarket’s transaction amount exceeded 1 trillion won two years after its establishment and it was listed on Nasdaq in the U.S.

After selling Gmarket, CEO Ku sold Korean products in Singapore in 2010 and introduced Qoo10 from 2012. Currently, Qoo10 is called Singapore’s Amazon and provides product sales and delivery services to 24 countries in 11 languages.

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