The chief of Qoo10, the Singapore-based parent firm of TMON and WeMakePrice, said Friday it has begun a process to merge the two e-commerce platforms to help resolve the liquidity crisis facing the companies.

On Thursday, Qoo10 applied for the establishment of a new business entity named K-Commerce Center for World with an initial capital of 1 billion won ($730,000) to proceed with the merger plan, the company said in a statement.

The merger between TMON and WeMakePrice requires approval from the Seoul Bankruptcy Court.

The two open-market platforms filed for corporate rehabilitation with the court late last month after failing to make payments to their vendors and provide refunds to customers due to liquidity issues caused by the parent firm's aggressive merger deals.

The financial authorities suspect there are more than 1 trillion won of unpaid bills and other liquidity issues regarding the incident.

Through the merger proposal, Ku Young-bae, the South Korean founder and CEO of Qoo10, said Qoo10 will cut its entire stakes in TMON and WeMakePrice, and he will place his entire 38 percent stake in Qoo10 under the control of KCCW, the statement said.

Qoo10 was founded in 2010, and acquired TMON in 2022 and WeMakePrice last year. (Yonhap)