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Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market

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Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market

Plus: more Sequoia startup woes and the latest China vs The World updates

Jon Russell
Jun 20, 2023
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Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market

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Welcome back,

This week the spotlight is very much on Southeast Asia, where a recently released report gives new insight into the region’s e-commerce market—which Shopee dominates but TikTok is making progress in. There’s also upcoming AI plans for the region’s government, a new early-stage venture capital fund for the Philippines and an impending delivery IPO.

This week, there’s also a breakout of ‘China vs the world’ as tech becomes one of the main stages for the geo-political battle.

Thanks for subscribing and see you next week,

Jon


Stories in focus

Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market

Image via Midjourney

Momentum Works put out a mega report on e-commerce in Southeast Asia, the headline number is that the region is close to $100B GMV, with the reporting finding that total GMV (gross merchandise value, aka the total value of goods sold) hit $99.5B in 2022. E-commerce was always inevitable but the growth has been amazing, I remember when Lazada hit $1B in GMV back in 2015 and here we are.

Things have indeed changed and Lazada doesn’t dominate despite being the first player to market by some margin.

From the report:

  • Shopee registered $47.9 billion GMV, that’s almost half of the region’s figure

  • Lazada remains the second largest player in all countries except Indonesia. Its GMV of $20.1B remained at the level of 2021

  • TikTok Shop has also become a meaningful player, clocking $4.4B GMV, with $2.5B from Indonesia alone

The report is a paid one but you can pick up some key nuggets here

Speaking of which, Reuters reported that TikTok is ready to invest “billions of dollars” more in Southeast Asia to boost e-commerce business and take on Lazada and Shopee.


More startup woes for Peak XV

It’s look like there’s another case of financial irregularities at a startup backed by Peak XV (fna Sequoia India/SE Asia) after Mojocare’s investors—which also include B Capital and Chiratae Ventures—went public on issues that just caused a number of layoffs at the company

In a joint statement, the investors said they were reviewing the financials of Mojocare and the findings thus far suggested that the business model employed by the startup was “not sustainable due to a variety of operational and market factors.”

You’ll recall, Peak XV has had issues before as explained in a recent piece on its rebranding.


China vs the World

Image via Midjourney

These are heady times for US-Sino relations with tech and science a key battlefront, here’s a collection of the latest must-knows:

  • The US is pushing China out of the internet’s plumbing using the subsea cable market, which critics are worried could divide into eastern and western blocs amid fears of espionage and geopolitical tensions link

  • US chip gearmaker Applied Materials is suing Chinese-owned Mattson over what it says was a 14-month effort to steal some of its most valuable secrets link

  • How “shady” Chinese firm Hualan’s encryption chips got inside the US Navy, NATO, and NASA—worryingly, US agencies still use one of its subsidiary’s chips, raising fears of a backdoor link

  • Security researchers at Mandiant say China-backed hackers exploited Barracuda zero-day to spy on governments link

  • Chinese tech groups are suffering as foreign investors take flight link

  • The US will allow South Korean and Taiwan chip makers to maintain and expand their existing operations in China without reprisals. link

  • The EU will Ban Huawei and ZTE from Internal Commission Networks link

  • US chip maker Micron plans to invest $600M on China plant despite Beijing’s partial ban on its products link

  • The Biden administration is grappling with how to identify artificial intelligence that poses a threat to national security link


China

American capital has stopped flowing to Chinese venture capital and private equity funds en masse link

Forbes profiles ‘Heina’ Chen, the secretive executive who is signator for many entities and compliance at Binance link

ByteDance’s Douyin Challenges WeChat to Become China’s Next Everything App link

Jack Ma is back in China, but he isn't back, says Wired link

Although Ma is still a massive figure in tech, people have moved on. With Ma out of the public eye, they now hang on the words of entrepreneurs like Xiaomi’s Lei Jun and Qihoo 360’s Zhou Hongyi. The news is captured less by Web 2.0 companies and more by those developing AI and EVs. People are looking at Baidu’s attempt to compete with Chat GPT.

A look into the dramatic story of how Huawei lost a $200M contact to provide 5G in Denmark link

A year after delisting from the NYSE, and Didi still boasts a $14B value and a dominant position in China’s ride-hailing industry link

The EU is funding Huawei to run cutting-edge research on next-generation communication systems, even though several European governments have banned the Chinese tech group from their telecoms networks link

Fast-rising commerce player Temu is selling products in the US that are linked to forced labor in China’s Uyghur region link

Indeed, US spending on Temu was reportedly 20% higher than more established rival Shein during May link

https://twitter.com/bmorrissey/status/1668432546609131520

Alibaba plans to expand its local businesses in Europe, according to its president link

ByteDance reportedly bought $1B in Nvidia GPUs for AI this year before US sanctions kicked in link


Taiwan

Taiwan seeks closer EU ties in return for chip investment link


Hong Kong

American tech giants are slowly cutting off Hong Kong internet users, from Apple, to Disney and Google to Open AI link

In a first, Bank of China unit issued digital securities on Ethereum blockchain in Hong Kong amid city’s virtual asset push link

Hong Kong is planning to introduce a stablecoin regulatory framework by 2024 link

Hong Kong’s regulator is pushing banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered to take on crypto clients link

Tether counted securities issued by Chinese companies among the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin, which underpins much of crypto link


India

Indifi Technologies, which provides digital lending to SMEs, raised $35M link

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey claims India threatened to shut the service down if it did not censor protesting accounts—the government denies this “outright lie” link

India is investigating reports that its Covid Portal (CoWIN) was breached with personal data leaked link (It appears the attackers don't have access to the entire CoWIN portal nor backend database)

Uber led a $20M round in Everest Fleet for EV expansion link

ChrysCapital invested $100M in Lenskart—the eyewear startup has now raised $850M over the last year link

ChatGPT is being trialled among tech-illiterate and non-English speaking—to give support to India’s domestic workers, waste recyclers, struggling farmers and others link


Southeast Asia

Kaya Founders is tapping a startup boom in the Philippines by offering early stage investment in startups from ‘day 0’—it just closed $12M across two funds with a goal of reaching $25M. It’s inaugural fund was around $5M link

Southeast Asian governments are reportedly coming together to develop a set of 'guardrails' around AI using a new governance code—it isn’t exactly clear what these guardrails will look like but they’ll likely emerge before the end of the year. A similar AI code of conduct from the EU and US, which could come by next month link

Siemens will spend $2.2B to ramp up global production, including a new $220M plant in Singapore for industrial automation link

Indonesia-based courier J&T Express plans to file for a Hong Kong IPO that would raise $500M-$1B link


Japan

Japan plans to stoke competition in smartphone app payments, dominated by Apple and Google, by banning major app store operators from forcing software developers to use the operators' own payment systems link

Huawei is demanding royalties from 30 telecom-related companies in Japan in a move that looks like it is designed to offset revenue loss in other areas link

SoftBank is said to be preparing to make a new round of layoffs at Vision Fund link

Chinese man arrested in Japan over alleged tech leak link


South Korea

A former Samsung Electric executive has been accused of stealing secrets for a China chip factory link

WSJ has a deeper profile of the accused—who had a renowned career at home in career before moving to China’s chip industry link


North Korea

A look at how North Korea’s hacker Army stole $3B in crypto to help fund the regime’s nuclear programme among other things link


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Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market

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Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market

www.asiatechreview.com
Michael Spencer
Writes AI Supremacy
Jun 20

Always enjoy reading your newsletter such relevant points, especially of course for the southeast Asia region. It sounds like social commerce is taking off in places where mobile is the main means of connection.

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