For many years, when it comes to e-commerce, there has been one undisputed leader — Amazon. However, as consumers began changing their buying behaviour, newer brands began to pop up to upend the online shopping juggernaut. Take Shein for instance, the Chinese company that only recently took the world by a storm for its ultra fast fashion approach has overthrown Amazon, topping the chart as one of the most downloaded shopping apps in the world in 2021.

In fact, Shein is not the only one. According to the newest data from Apptopia, two other e-commerce companies leapfrogged Amazon in the global rankings: Shopee, based in Singapore, which serves Southeast Asia and Latin America; and Meesho, based in India, which specializes in social e-commerce for categories including fashion and home products.

All data is iOS + Google Play combined, except for data from China which is iOS only. Source: Apptopia

The US e-commerce giant came in fourth place overall in global shopping app installation last year. Just the year before, Amazon had the most app installs worldwide. It is fair to note though that Amazon is still first in Apptopia’s US rankings for shopping app installs in 2021. This is given considering data from Statista that shows the Seattle-based company holds 41% of the US e-commerce market in 2021.

CAN SHOPEE SURPASS THE INTERNATIONAL E-COMMERCE BUSINESS OF ALIBABA?

Dashveenjit Kaur | 31 August, 2021

Singapore-based Shopee came in first with a total 203 million downloads while China-based Shein came in second with 190 million downloads and the company has been a growing force in the fast fashion market. India-based Meesho took the third spot with 153 million downloads.

Amazon, Shein, Shopee vs social commerce

At this point, online is growing at a torrid pace. New data from fintech and payments research specialists Kaleido Intelligence has found that B2B and B2C e-commerce spend on physical goods and digital services will reach US$6 trillion this year, up from US$4.8 trillion in 2020. 

But it is shopping on social media platforms that will top the chart as it is currently growing three times faster than traditional e-commerce platforms. In fact, it is on pace to reach US$1.2 trillion globally by 2025, according to a study by Accenture. Most of that growth (62%) will be driven by Gen Z and millennial shoppers.

“The social commerce opportunity will nearly triple by 2025. Growing at a CAGR of 26%, the social commerce opportunity will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025. This accounts for 16.7% of the US$7 trillion e-commerce total spend,” Accenture said in a separate report.

The report also believes that China will remain the most advanced market both in size and maturity, yet the highest growth will be seen in developing markets such as India and Brazil. As for the US, social commerce is expected to more than double, reaching US$99 billion by 2025.

The post Shein, Shopee and Meesho overtake Amazon in 2021 appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has been facing intensified competition that has been eating into its market share. The pandemic and evolution in the way consumers shop has even widened the difference in revenue growth of Alibaba and its peers. Having its position in the industry challenged, Alibaba realized it needs to do what it takes to have its e-commerce business especially to stay relevant.

For starters, the company announced that it will be reorganizing its international and domestic e-commerce businesses and have its CFO replaced. According to the company’s statement on Monday, the changes come “as the tech giant grapples with an onslaught of competition, a slowing economy, and a regulatory crackdown.”

To recall, the company was fined a record 18 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion) in April for abusing its dominant market position. Alibaba broke the country’s antimonopoly law by preventing merchants from selling their goods on other shopping platforms.

How will Alibaba and its e-commerce unit be structured then?

The reorganizing of its e-commerce unit will begin with the formation of two new units — international digital commerce and China digital commerce which the company said was part of efforts to become more agile and accelerate growth. In Alibaba’s last quarterly earnings, the company announced its annual active consumers (AAC) overseas reached 285 million and reiterated its ambitious goal of serving 2 billion consumers globally.

Apparently, the international digital commerce unit will include AliExpress which sells to retail buyers particularly in Europe and South America, its Southeast Asian e-commerce business Lazada and Alibaba.com which is more focused on selling to overseas business customers. The newly-formed International Digital Commerce will be led by Jiang Fan while Alibaba veteran Trudy Dai will lead the new China Digital Commerce that combines Alibaba’s China consumer-facing and wholesale marketplaces. 

HERE’S HOW THIS YEAR’S SINGLES DAY SALES PLAYED OUT FOR ALIBABA, JD.COM

Dashveenjit Kaur | 16 November, 2021

Toby Xu will also be succeeding Maggie Wu as CFO from April 1,next year. In a letter to employees outlining his strategy and leadership changes, Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said “We will continue to focus on becoming a truly globalized company, and we believe that overseas markets present many exciting potential and opportunities for us to capture. We have confidence in our local teams, and we are charting a path forward with a holistic strategic blueprint and organizational stability for winning our overseas markets.”

Strengthening its domestic presence

As with its international commerce integration, Alibaba will also be combining all domestic commerce businesses to foster more collaboration and synergy across business units to serve its consumers and customers better. For this, the company appointed Alibaba veteran Trudy Dai to lead the new China Digital Commerce.

“An Alibaba founding member and partner, Dai has served various leadership roles within the company over the years. She has strong expertise across the China consumption sector, a keen understanding of consumer needs, and deep knowledge of the Alibaba ecosystem,” the blog posting reads.

The new structure for domestic e-commerce will put Dai in charge of all China retail marketplaces, including Taocaicai — its community e-commerce service; Taobao Deals, as well as Lingshoutong, a retail management platform for mom and pop stores, according to 86research.com analyst Xiaoyan Wang.

Competition and hefty fines have not been the only dilemma faced by the tech giant. The company was affected by weaker growth and fierce competition from a plethora of rivals.

Conditions have even led Alibaba to slash its forecast for annual revenue growth to its slowest pace since its 2014 stock market debut. To make it worse, Alibaba’s sale during this year’s Singles Day — the company’s own banner event — grew at the slowest rate.

The post Alibaba reshuffles e-commerce arm, replaces CFO appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

A Bengaluru-based fintech startup that has been solving credit card woes for the younger population in India, has just become a unicorn company after raising US$220 million in its latest series B funding. Slice is now valued at over US$1 billion and is the 41st Indian startup and the 11th fintech firm to achieve unicorn status this year.

In India, where the credit card market is huge and untapped, Slice decided to come up with a pay later card minus the complexities of a traditional credit card.  The company made it so convenient for anyone to own a credit card today that it has amassed over five million users (with a median age of 27), to date.

I turned 28 few weeks back. I want @sliceit_ to become a Unicorn before I get to 30

We could be valued at $100-150mn today

What is the one thing we need to do today to get there?

— Rajan Bajaj (@rajanbajaj_) January 7, 2021

This year alone, Slice has ramped up its monthly credit card issuances tenfold, from 20,000 cards in January to close to 200,000 cards in October. The company started off as a ‘buy now, pay later’ platform but it eventually pivoted to offering credit cards in 2019 to penetrate a largely untapped market in India.

Today, users can sign up and get a Slice “super card” –a prepaid visa card with a credit line — virtually or physically. Slice also lets users split their bill into three monthly installments at zero cost and even enjoy up to 2% cash back for each transaction.

INDIAN FINTECH SLICE IS REDEFINING THE CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY IN INDIA

Dashveenjit Kaur | 12 July, 2021

Slice’s latest capital-raising was done as part of its Series B funding round led by New York-based investment firms Tiger Global and Insight Partners. It was also joined by new and existing investors such as Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, Gunosy, 8i, and Blume Ventures. Even Flipkart founder Binny Bansal, among other notable angels, took part in the round.

According to reports by Indian local media, proceeds from the latest fundraise will be used on existing lines of business, for investments in newer products, and also to grow its engineering and design functions. “The company will also use a portion of the fresh capital to fund its non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm, and scale its loan book,” Livemint said in a report.

To top it off,  new card issuances and users for the company are growing 40% every month, according to founder and chief executive officer at Slice Rajan Bajaj. He also said the company is currently recording an annual revenue run rate of US$60 million.

Bajaj also foresees more than 150 million Indians to opt for credit cards or pay later products over the next five to seven years, as Slice aims to be the best consumer product choice for this emerging market. The company is also gearing up to launch payments on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a state-backed system that simplifies inter-bank money transfers and merchant payments, according to TechCrunch’s report.

The post Fintech startup Slice joins the Indian unicorn club appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

We are living through times where the opportunity for social media as a sales channel cannot be ignored. It is the sheer amount of time spent by people, especially younger generations, on social media apps that are making social commerce the new indisputable market trend.

Being one of the youngest and largest communities in the world, Southeast Asia has been and is expected to continue being the biggest market for social commerce. Especially given how a large chunk of its population is entering its prime of technology adoption. 

In fact, according to the latest report by Google, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Company, more than 75% of the population in six major Southeast Asian countries have access to the internet. To top it off, this year alone, as many as 40 million people across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand came online for the first time. 

That has led to the total number of internet users in those six countries rising to over 440 million people, of which 80% made an online purchase at least once, the report said. In short, it is clear that social commerce offers significant long-term potential for businesses willing to leverage it.

SOUTHEAST ASIA SEES EXHILARATING RISE IN SOCIAL COMMERCE

Dashveenjit Kaur | 14 October, 2021

Tech Wire Asia had the opportunity recently to speak with iKala’s CEO & Co-Founder, Sega Cheng to discuss the potential for social commerce within the Southeast Asian region. For context, iKala recently published a report titled ‘Riding the Pandemic Wave & Beyond’ which surveyed 1600 social shoppers and more than 23,600 social sellers across Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore to identify emerging trends in the region’s social commerce space.

What does the rise of social commerce mean for SEA’s retail industry?

Southeast Asia is home to some of the most avid social media users in the world, and in recent years, many of them have started leveraging social platforms not just to connect and explore, but also to shop. According to our new research report, social commerce (78%) has overtaken traditional brick-and-mortar (35%) to become the second most preferred shopping channel in the region, second only to e-commerce platforms (91%).

As usage continues to increase, social media platforms — from Facebook to TikTok — are rapidly adding new shopping features and capabilities to support the surge in demand. This is creating new channels and opportunities for retailers to easily reach shoppers and provide them with unique, engaging experiences.

But these opportunities are not without their challenges. Higher shopper expectations mean retailers need to work harder than ever to win consumers’ attention and share of wallet. Fortunately, technology is evolving at an equal pace — and leveraging the right tools will enable them to unlock growth.

How has the pandemic played a role in accelerating the transformation of the industry?

The agility and convenience of shopping on social media had already made it a popular alternative to e-commerce and brick-and-mortar in recent years, but the pandemic has played a huge role in accelerating the growth of this format. The closure of physical stores amidst Covid-19 restrictions saw consumers flocking to online mediums for all their shopping needs. 

Those who weren’t already selling via online channels had to quickly pivot towards a digital-first strategy, while those who did have an online presence began to look at new, innovative ways of engaging with their customers. These shifts in shopper behavior are here to stay. For brands, the key to success is to focus on ways in which they can continue to engage and hold the attention of their customers through emerging digital platforms and channels.

Which of these trends are the most crucial for brands to note & take action on?

Our research found that not only are consumers buying in higher volumes and more frequently on social media, they’re also exploring newer shopping categories. Social commerce is no longer restricted to categories like clothing, beauty, and electronics. 

Pandemic-induced lockdowns and restrictions across Southeast Asia have prompted more people to turn to social media for essentials, including food and beverage (F&B) and grocery shopping.

In fact, the latest report by Facebook, Bain & Company found that groceries were the fastest growing online shopping segment in the region for this year.

As the landscape continues to evolve, opportunities are emerging in new and underpenetrated sectors. It is imperative for brands to keep an eye on these changing trends and adapt quickly in order to achieve success in the new shopping world. In fact, retailers who are quick to make shifts are already reporting tremendous success. 

One example is e-grocer HappyFresh, which reported a 10-20x growth in online traffic in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand amidst the pandemic last year.

What does the future of retail look like (bearing in mind these new trends)?

The retail industry is undergoing a massive shift right now. As physical retail came to a standstill amidst global restrictions and lockdown orders, online shopping thrived. Trends like social commerce and live-selling are growing at an exhilarating pace — and this is only going to intensify.

The rules of retail are changing, which means that brands and sellers must either adapt now or lose out. The key to success lies in adopting emerging technologies and providing consumers with new and unique experiences. It is crucial for brands, retailers, and even individual sellers to start looking at social commerce as a long-term sales solution instead of a short-term gimmick. They need to be willing to invest in a growing array of value-adding technologies to lay the foundations of a robust strategy.

The post The age of social commerce will be powered by Southeast Asia appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Months earlier, Chinese regulators ordered AntGroup to separate from its main business the company’s two lending units — Huabei and Jiebei — into a new entity and bring in outside shareholders. Officials now want these lending businesses to have their own independent apps as well.

CHINA BOILING MAD OVER TAIWAN’S TSMC HANDING OVER CHIP DATA TO THE US

Jamilah Lim | 8 November, 2021

Beijing also introduced a slew of new rules in areas from antitrust for internet platforms and a bolstered data protection law. Both e-commerce giant Alibaba and food delivery firm Meituan have faced antitrust fines.

Now, the Chinese government has moved to exert more authority over the industry in the past year, citing concerns that tech giants in the country have become too big and powerful.

This latest move against embattled Tencent comes after nine of the group’s apps were found to have committed “violations” since the beginning of the year, prompting the need for “transitional administrative guidance measures”, state media CCTV quoted the government as saying.

The company must submit any new apps or updates for inspection in China by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before they can be uploaded or updated.

“After passing inspection, they can then be launched to users as usual,” the ministry said, according to CCTV in a report Wednesday.

A man plays a computer game at an internet cafe in Beijing on September 10, 2021, days after Chinese officials summoned gaming enterprises including Tencent and NetEase, the two market leaders in China’s multi-billion-dollar gaming scene, to discuss further curbs on the industry. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)

Tencent told AFP it would comply with the requirements.

“We are continuously working to enhance user protection features within our apps, and also have regular co-operation with relevant government agencies to ensure regulatory compliance. Our apps remain functional and available for download,” it said.

China’s ruling Communist Party has relied upon success stories like Tencent to push forward a digital transformation in the country, and the biggest domestic apps have hundreds of millions of users.

But Beijing abruptly turned on the sector late last year as concerns mounted over its aggressive expansion and allegations of monopolistic practices and data abuses –- paralleling similar unease with tech firms in the United States and elsewhere.

This month, Tencent reported its slowest revenue growth since 2004.

The government’s crackdown has included measures to dramatically restrict children’s video game playing time and has slowed approvals for new titles in the world’s biggest gaming market.

In September, hundreds of Chinese video game makers, including Tencent, vowed to better police their products for “politically harmful” content and enforce curbs on underage players, as they looked to fall into line with government demands.

GFM Asset Management’s Tariq Dennison told CNBC reported that Beijing’s ongoing regulatory crackdown on technology could last up to 30 years. However, Tariq believes this wont still stop investors from investing in Chinese technology.

With new apps in China requiring approval, the reality is, the crackdown may just slow down innovation in the country. China still has sufficient tech skills but they may not be able to attract new skills if continued crackdown on technology continues.

With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse

The post China requires new apps to get state approval appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Annually, November 11, known as “Singles Day,” never fails to be the world’s biggest 24-hour shopping event. The statistics have always been staggering, both for the sheer volume of sales transacted and its year-on-year growth. This year’s sale wasn’t different, except for the fact that Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd recorded its first single-digit growth in sales since 2009.

Sales had grown by double digits every year since Alibaba founded the festival in 2009 and that eventually made Singles Day the world’s biggest online sales festival. But for this year, amidst a rather slow local economic expansion and the Chinese government’s relentless crackdown on tech giants, Alibaba’s sales grew only 8.5%, its slowest rate ever.

Overall, the total gross merchandise value (GMV) for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sale this year grew by 8.5% to a record 540.3 billion yuan (US$84.5 billion) during the 11-day campaign. For context, the e-commerce giant recorded an 85.6% sales growth in 2020. Experts reckon that the contributing factors would be the slowed consumption in China and Alibaba’s relatively muted version of a sales festival this time around.

As it is, China just recorded its slowest economic expansion pace in decades, to 4.9% in the third quarter, while retail sales increased at a mere 4.4% in September from a year ago, according to China’s statistics bureau. 

JD.COM’S SINGLES DAY BOOSTED THE USE OF CHINA’S DIGITAL YUAN

Dashveenjit Kaur | 15 November, 2021

To be fair, analysts have long relied on the sales figure to gauge the health of China’s economy as well as the country’s number one e-commerce platform operator. A report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) attributed the rather sluggish Singles Day sales this year to “supply-chain crunch”

“China’s factory-gate inflation has been climbing as energy and other raw materials get more expensive. Power outages have halted or slowed manufacturing in several provinces, while the global semiconductor shortage continues to weigh on electronics production. Some imports are arriving slower than usual amid a global logistics disruption,” WSJ said.

Separately, CNN said the increased inflation in China threatens to erode profit margins and the purchasing power held by consumers. “The cost of goods leaving China’s factories surged by another record rate last month — China’s Producer Price Index jumped 13.5% in October from a year ago — and there are now signs that the higher costs are trickling down. China’s Consumer Price Index rose 1.5% in October from a year ago, double the rate of the previous month and the fastest pace of increase since September 2020,” the report noted.

To top it off, Alibaba also toned down its marketing hype amid ongoing regulatory tightening from Chinese authorities, while its focus shifted towards sustainable growth this year. On the other hand, its competitor JD.com said, its total transaction volume increased 28.6% to 349.1 billion yuan this year. The growth rate was also lower than last year‘s 32.8% but higher than 2019’s 27.9% increase.

JD shared that users from so-called lower-tier markets accounted for 77% of all shoppers during the Singles Day period. The company said it had seen “rapid growth of consumption” from these markets in home appliances, medicine and home decoration. The same was for Alibaba. When the sales began on November 1 to November 3, Alibaba said spending in lower-tier cities and rural areas increased by nearly 25% from last year.

The post Here’s how this year’s Singles Day sales played out for Alibaba, JD.com appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Back in May this year, Indonesian super app Gojek and marketplace Tokopedia merged to form GoTo Group. Although the merger were finalised mid this year, it wasn’t until last month that the brand GoTo was registered with Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) of Ministry of Law and Human Rights (MoLHR).

Unfortunately, a little known company in Indonesia, PT Terbit Financial Technology, came forward to make it known that it owns the right to the brand name GoTo since May this year. For that, Gojek and Tokopedia were slapped with a lawsuit from Terbit Financial Technology, demanding them to pay two trillion rupiah (approximately US$140 million) as compensation.

According to a local media report recently, Gojek and Tokopedia registered GoTo with MoLHR on October 27, 2021 with registration number IDM000903101. The start date of the coverage is March 5, 2021 and the end date of the cover is March 5, 2031. Meanwhile, Terbit Financial Technology registered GoTo as the name of its computer software application, on May 25, 2021. “The start date of protection for this mark is 10 March 2020 and the end of protection is 10 March 2030,” the report added.

Apparently, a representative from the GoTo Group said that the company is aware of this issue and will respect the ongoing legal process until its conclusion. “We have successfully registered the GoTo name with the relevant authority and always operate in line with local regulations,” he said.

HOW WILL THE GOJEK-TOKOPEDIA MERGER RIVAL GRAB IN SEA?

Dashveenjit Kaur | 26 April, 2021

In the lawsuit, Terbit Financial, the plaintiff, has requested the Central Jakarta Commercial Court to grant a number of its claims. The claims include, declare the plaintiff as the sole owner and legal right holder of the registered mark “GOTO” and all its variations. Secondly, stating that the “GOTO”, “goto”, and “goto financial” brands have similarities with the plaintiff’s “GOTO” brand.

Terbit Financial also requested the court to instruct Gojek and Tokopedia to stop the use of the “GOTO ” mark or any variations thereof.  “Punishing the Defendants to stop using the GOTO mark or all its variations. Punishing the Defendants jointly and severally paying forced money of Rp. 1,000,000,000 (one billion rupiah) to the Plaintiff for every day of delay in carrying out the decision on this case, ” the plaintiff said.

While such a lawsuit isn’t an isolated one, Facebook too were recently taken to court by a Chicago-based tech firm called Meta Company. In a public letter, Meta Company Founder Nate Skulic said “On Oct 28, 2021, Facebook decided to commit trademark infringement and call themselves Meta. They couldn’t buy us, so they tried to bury us by force of media. We shouldn’t be surprised by these actions – from a company that continually says one thing and does another.” 

The post Gojek + Tokopedia GoTo court over trademark appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

For almost two decades, Jack Ma-owned Alibaba was the indomitable e-commerce champion in China. The company had grown exponentially over the years to even become the world’s largest online and mobile commerce business. While it hasn’t been a smooth-sailing journey, Alibaba, to date, has been the only closest organization Amazon has to a peer and rival.

While Alibaba may have strengthened its foothold in the industry with every passing year, China’s e-commerce industry did not remain the same either. If anything, the Chinese market has evolved, matured and transformed to an extent, and the main contributing factor is the consumers. 

Chinese consumers have embraced various new ways of shopping over the years, with the most recent trend favoring browsing and interacting over targeted product searches. Basically these and other challenges –like the rising sophistication of Chinese consumers–are upping the ante for consumer-facing companies. 

SOUTHEAST ASIA SEES EXHILARATING RISE IN SOCIAL COMMERCE

Dashveenjit Kaur | 14 October, 2021

Unfortunately, Alibaba has been left behind in some of these areas as competitors have been upping their ante in the world’s largest online retail market. Take Tencent Holdings Ltd., it has been incorporating online stores into its social-messaging app WeChat, while Pinduoduo Inc., appended gamelike elements into shopping, while drawing in bargain hunters with lower-priced goods.

Even Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, is selling products through short videos and live-streaming with the help of its algorithms. In fact, shopping via short videos became a hot trend in China mainly due to Douyin and video-sharing mobile app Kuaishou. All that could well be the factor why Alibaba’s share of China’s retail e-commerce market has fallen to a projected 51% in 2021 from 78% in 2015, according to research firm eMarketer. 

“Along with various types of e-commerce players springing up in recent 2-3 years, including live streaming, social commerce, etc, customers’ appetites on online shopping platforms are also diversifying,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report last month. They predict Chinese consumer spending overall will double in the next decade to $12.7 trillion.

Alibaba needs to adapt or be left behind in China

The country’s National Bureau of Statistics said online retail sales of physical goods in China rose 14.8% last year to a total of 9.759 trillion yuan, accounting for a quarter of all consumer goods sold in the country. 

However, while the number of online shoppers climbed to 782 million by December, the country had more internet users watching videos, at 927 million, government agency China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a report earlier this year. In particular, live streaming e-commerce users surged by 123 million between March and December 2020, for a total of 388 million, the report said. About two-thirds of these users have made a purchase while watching a livestream, the report said.

Although Alibaba’s Taobao Live has China’s lion’s share of live-streaming at around 80%, the increased competition from other players are slowing Alibaba when it comes to catching up. Even so, its own Chief Executive Daniel Zhang listed increased competition as one of the company’s biggest obstacles of the past year and said any profit that exceeded last year’s would be poured back into improving its e-commerce businesses.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) puts it as, “a consumer trend that worked against Alibaba was the shopping shift from search to browsing. While many Chinese consumers still go directly to Alibaba’s Taobao or Tmall to look for products, others have been pulled into purchases while they are interacting digitally or consuming online content.”

It is also important to note that consumers around the world, especially in Southeast Asia are also growing fonder of interactive e-commerce experiences. The reality is, Alibaba needs to take note of the warning signs and start thinking of ways they can return back to the top.

The post Alibaba risks dominance in China as shoppers evolve appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Less than a month ago, Microsoft-owned professional networking platform, LinkedIn, pulled its plug on China due to the local government’s tight grip on foreign companies. Unfortunately, Beijing’s wide-ranging regulatory clampdown has also been putting pressure on numerous other tech giants, with the latest to fall victim being Yahoo Inc. and Epic Games’ Fortnite.

American gaming giant Epic, announced yesterday that it will shut the local Chinese version of its popular game “Fortnite” on November 15, according to an update on its website. New account registrations were already prohibited since November 1, this year.

Known as the “Fortress Night,” in China, Epic launched it in 2018 through a partnership with publisher Tencent, who is also a significant investor in Epic, owning a 40% stake in the firm. The game technically never passed its “test” mode for the last three years, as Tencent never received approval to sell in-app items and monetize from the game.

Although Epic didn’t provide a specific reason as to why it was shutting down Fortnite in China, the exit was announced two months after Beijing introduced new rules that severely restricts young gamers’ playtime. New game approvals have also been on hold ever since.

As per Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad’s tweet, “The battle royale genre has been strictly regulated in China. The domestic games that are approved there have heavy content changes.”

What pushed Yahoo out of China?

“Increasingly challenging business and legal environment” — That is Yahoo’s exact reason for exiting China after two long decades of striving in a highly regulated market. The company however claims that it “remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet.”

“In recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in China, Yahoo’s suite of services will no longer be accessible from mainland China as of November 1,” the company said in a statement. Yahoo follows a series of other tech giants including Google and Facebook that have exited China over the last few years.

Their departure however didn’t leave a void in the local Chinese market. In fact, China gave birth to an alternative internet, consisting of its own digital giants. For example, the Baidu search engine has largely replaced Yahoo over the years and Google in China, whereas WeChat and Weibo are the leading social media platforms there.

Yahoo’s demise from the Chinese market however is not as abrupt because the company has been downsizing its operations there for a while now. First, in the early 2010s, Yahoo forgo a music and email service and by 2015, it shuttered its Beijing office.

What sets Yahoo’s departure apart from the rest though, is how it coincides with the implementation of China’s Personal Information Protection Law, which limits what information companies can gather. The law also stipulated how data must be stored locally and that companies operating in the country must hand over data if requested by authorities. This in turn has made it difficult for Western firms like Yahoo and LinkedIn, to operate in China as they may also face pressure back home for bowing to China’s demands.

The post Yahoo, Fortnite leaves China as crackdown on big tech intensifies appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

E-commerce pioneer Tokopedia has amassed the most website visitors in Indonesia for the second quarter of this year, reclaiming its position from Singapore-headquartered Shopee, which had held the position since the third quarter of 2019. Both Tokopedia and Shopee have been fiercely battling since 2019, upon the latter’s entry into the local Indonesian market.

Shopee and Tokopedia have been neck-to-neck in the popularity race as both hold the largest e-commerce market shares in Indonesia last year at 37 and 35%, respectively, according to Momentum Works data.

To recall, Tokopedia was the most visited e-commerce site since the fourth quarter of 2018, until Shopee took over the spot from the fourth quarter of 2019 until the end of last year. 

The latest data from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows that Tokopedia’s monthly web traffic reached 147 million visits in the second quarter this year, while Shopee ranked second with 126 million. Then there are other e-commerce firms, namely Bukalapak, Lazada, and Blibli, with fewer than 30 million web visits, respectively. 

When it comes to performance on app stores, however, Shopee has been consistently ranking first on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store since the first quarter of 2020. In that sense, Tokopedia is still lagging behind, ranking second in the App Store and fourth in the Play Store.

LOOK OUT, WORLD, THESE FINTECH UNICORNS FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA ARE READY TO POUNCE

Rebecca Oi | 12 October, 2021

 The rise of the Tencent-backed e-commerce firm in the Southeast Asian region over the past five years has been remarkable, to say the least. Owned by Singapore-based tech behemoth Sea Group, Shopee was the most downloaded shopping app last year in six of the region’s biggest markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore – according to app tracker App Annie. 

The ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in a report highlighted that Tokopedia has seen its market domination being taken over by Shopee, particularly during the pandemic. “Part of the reason is the massive promotional campaigns mounted by Shopee during the lockdown period,” it added.

To compete against their main rivals (Shopee and Grab), Gojek and Tokopedia decided to merge in May 2021 into a new entity called GoTo Group. This new company is now Indonesia’s highest-valued startup, at an estimated US$18 billion. ISEAS reckons time would decide if the merger will significantly tilt the market position to the advantage of GoTo. “But for sure, there will be heightened competition in the industry,” it added.

To top it off, consulting firm Redseer reported that online shoppers in Indonesia grew from 75 million pre-COVID-19 to 85 million people during the pandemic. It also projected the country’s e-commerce GMV to reach US$40 billion in 2021, the third-highest in the world after China and India. 

Overall, given how e-commerce is the prime driving force in Indonesia’s internet economy, according to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company,  the sector is expected to be worth US$82 billion in 2025, seeing a 48% leap from 2015. The report attributed the rise to the ubiquity of online promotions, a trend that is especially apparent and successful in SEA. 

The post Tokopedia reclaims top spot from Shopee as most visited e-commerce site in Indonesia appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.