Online marketplaces can easily cross sea borders when it comes to sales and imports. That’s why an estimated 1.8 Billion people worldwide have purchased goods online.
If you are looking for a sales platform that can reach various regions without breaking the bank, selling on an online platform is an excellent choice.
And in Southeast Asia, several players dominate the e-commerce industry: Lazada vs Shopee.
These two e-commerce platforms played big and made headlines at the height of the pandemic.
In this article, let’s see how they performed in 2020 and how Shopee, a newbie in the e-commerce industry, became Lazada’s biggest rival.
Let’s take a look at Lazada first
Founded in 2012, Lazada pioneered e-commerce settings in Southeast Asia, following in the footsteps and business model of Amazon.com.
Headquartered in Singapore, Lazada is a retail e-commerce Latest Mailing Database store that started in electronics. Later, Lazada added more categories such as home appliances and fashion and continued to expand its product range.
But it was an uphill and rocky climb for Lazada.
Internet penetration is slow, especially in non-metropolitan areas of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. In addition, third-party sellers do not sell online selling ideas.
Fortunately, economic growth has been accompanied by advances in technology – and this includes the high demand for internet accessibility.
It was in 2016 when Lazada took off and established itself firmly in Southeast Asia following its acquisition by Alibaba. Surprisingly, the highest monthly active users are based in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.[ * ]
Shopee entered the e-commerce industry in 2015
Technology is already struggling and the internet, as well as smartphones, are widely available. In addition, the rise of mobile wallets in Southeast Asia promises great potential for this application-based platform.
But with a business model that is head-to-head competition with Lazada, it’s seen as a David and Goliath affair.
Many Shopee stakeholders are selling their shares due to a lack of confidence that Shopee will grow even bigger.
In 2018, SEA Ltd, parent operator KHB Directory Shopee, and Southeast Asia’s largest gaming platform reported a quarterly loss of 250.8 million in three months.[ * ]
This is twice as large as 92.1 million in the previous year. All of this investment goes towards building their mobile-centric e-commerce platform.
In 2019-2020, these efforts paid off and Shopee became the largest pan-regional e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.
