Shopee remains king of SE Asia’s growing e-commerce market
Plus: more Sequoia startup woes and the latest China vs The World updates
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
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
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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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.