The total gross merchandise value (GMV) of Southeast Asia’s eight leading e-commerce platforms rose 15% year-on-year to $114.6 billion in 2023, according to the report ‘E-commerce in Southeast Asia 2024’ by Momentum Works.
In 2022, Southeast Asia’s e-commerce GMV had hit $99.5 billion, half of which was attributable to Shopee. In 2023, Shopee achieved a GMV of $55.1 billion and kept its market share steady at 48%. Lazada and Tokopedia recorded GMVs of $18.8 billion and $16.3 billion, respectively.
TikTok Shop almost quadrupled its annual GMV to $16.3 billion. By surpassing Tokopedia, TikTok Shop emerged as the second-largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.
TikTok completed its deal to take control of GoTo Group’s Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest e-commerce platform, in early 2024.
Vietnam and Thailand were the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the region last year, where GMV rose 52.9% and 34.1% YoY, respectively. Vietnam also overtook the Philippines as the third-largest e-commerce market in the region.
Indonesia retained its top spot as the largest e-commerce market, accounting for 46.9% of the region’s GMV. Yet, its growth rate of 3.7% was the most modest in the region last year.
“The competitive landscape of e-commerce in Southeast Asia remains dynamic and constantly transforming,” said Jianggan Li, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Momentum Works.
“With markets like Vietnam and Thailand showing remarkable growth and platforms like TikTok Shop rapidly expanding, it’s clear that innovation and adaptation are key to success in this region. The adoption of generative AI and the evolution of live e-commerce are reshaping the industry, and we are excited to see these trends drive continued growth and opportunities for businesses across Southeast Asia.”
E-commerce giants’ activities
One major development in Southeast Asian e-commerce last year was Indonesian tech giant GoTo’s announcement that it would sell a 75.01% stake in its e-commerce division Tokopedia to ByteDance-owned TikTok. TikTok’s social commerce business, TikTok Shop, was shuttered in Indonesia in September following a ban on social commerce in the country.
TikTok is set to invest over $1.5 billion into the merged entity, with $500 million paid upfront, emphasising its commitment to the lucrative Indonesian market.
Six months after the merger between TikTok and Tokopedia, ByteDance’s e-commerce ecosystem appears to have undergone significant changes, marked by layoffs and strategic shifts. This has led to questions about the overall impact of the merger on Indonesia’s e-commerce industry.
The company made headlines in June for a major round of layoffs, marking the first significant restructuring since their union in January 2024.
In response to intensifying competition from e-commerce peers in Southeast Asia, Sea Ltd’s marketplace arm Shopee achieved notable growth in revenue, gross merchandise value (GMV), and quarterly orders in the first quarter of 2024.
Logistics and live streaming were key drivers of this growth. Strengthening these services is essential to improving pricing competitiveness and enhancing overall service quality for both buyers and sellers, said Sea’s Chairman and CEO Forrest Li during the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call in May.
Sea reported $3.7 billion in GAAP revenue for the first quarter of 2024, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $3.62 billion. Its adjusted EBITDA of $401.1 million also exceeded Wall Street’s expectations of $227.4 million.
Funding for SE Asia’s e-commerce sector
Funding into e-commerce startups in Southeast Asia dropped to the lowest level in at least four years in the first quarter of 2024 despite a pickup in overall consumption.
E-commerce startups in the region could garner only $18 million in Q1, down by a steep 97.2% from the previous quarter despite a marginal increase in deal volume, per DealStreetAsia’s SE Asia Deal Review: Q1 2024 report.
Deal value also plunged 90.5% from the same period last year, while deal volume more than halved during the period.
In January, Thai B2C commerce platform Konvy.com recorded the highest funding in the quarter with an $11-million Series A funding round, followed by Motorist’s $3-million Series A round. The top two deals accounted for around 78% of the total funding into the sector during the period.
Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce enabler SCI Ecommerce reported a net profit of $3.4 million in 2022, compared with a net loss of $2.4 million in 2021, according to regulatory filings.
In June, DealStreetAsia reported that Vietnamese tech-enabled B2B e-commerce startup Vigo Retail has secured fresh funding from Argor Capital Management, Wavemaker Partners and Patamar Capital, according to regulatory filings.
The company has raised $9.4 million from investors in the first close of a Series A1 round, showed its filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).
