Amazon has existed in the US for as long as the Z generation remembers. But the oldest platform of internet shopping faced it crisis when it tried to open the Asian branch. The East Asia countries each has its’ own platform of online shopping. Such as Tencent’ Taobao and Alibaba’s AliPay in China. Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian market has Shopee as an answer.
Shopee, The Southeast Asian Version of Amazon
Shopee is developed by SEA Group, previously known as Garena. The original company started off as a tech company managing the distribution of Riot Games in Southeast Asia. The U.S. game developer company has just released The League of Legend by then. Now, it is the most played multiplayer mobile games in the world.
Forrest Li, the founder of Garena didn’t stop there. Inspired by Steve Job’s speech, he pursued his dream non-stop. His passion brought him investment from China’s biggest company, Tencent. With the money from Tencent, Li launched the first online shopping platform based in Singapore. It is called Shopee.
The C2C and B2C concept
Shopee at first started with the concept of C2C or customer to customer business. Where the site is merely a place where customer can sell and buy from each other. Association with dozens of shipping companies making it saver for the customers. Shopee also provides a saver payment service that allows refunds.
Then, the company released Shopee Mall. It’s a feature with B2C concept or business to customers. Instead of having the customers as the sellers, Shopee Mall is a platform for official distributors of branded products. It ensures the quality of the product they sell and its originality.
A king in the Southeast Asian market
Shopee has grown fast with its’ Southeast Asian branches. It is now available in Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines. There are more than a hundred million times of its apps downloads in Google Play Store only. And there are hundreds of millions active products being sold in the app.
The SEA Group online site was the 3rd most visited online shopping site in 2017. It excels other online shopping sites such as Lazada. Shopee is also one of the most disruptive startup commerce, per Tech in Asia.
