Entering the second half of the year, Southeast Asian e-commerce has successively reported good news:

Firstly, Lazada, a Southeast Asian e-commerce platform under Alibaba International, announced in July 2024 that it had achieved its first monthly EBITDA profit since its establishment, and also its first monthly profit since 2012.

Subsequently, Sea Ltd. released its financial report, with Shopee's e-commerce revenue reaching $2.8 billion in the second quarter of 2024, accounting for 73.6% of its parent company Sea Ltd.'s total revenue. Forrest Li, Chairman and CEO of Sea Ltd., expects Shopee's adjusted EBITDA to turn positive starting from the third quarter of this year.

TikTok Shop, which relies on content e-commerce to stir up the e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia, according to the "2024 Southeast Asian E-commerce" report by Moteng Venture Capital, its total e-commerce transaction volume in Southeast Asia reached 16.3 billion US dollars in 2023, an increase of more than 27 times compared to 2021, and "GMV almost quadrupled" last year. According to industry researchers, TikTok Shop has actually achieved profitability in Southeast Asia since the beginning of this year, especially in its two largest markets in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Thailand, where it has found reliable profit models.

Previously, TikTok Shop Southeast Asia was the fastest-growing e-commerce platform in the region.

These positive news are a clear positive signal for players who have long been paying attention to and investing in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market: the e-commerce ecosystem in Southeast Asia is maturing - major e-commerce platforms are no longer simply pursuing market expansion, and the wild growth tactics of the past have gradually faded away. Instead, they are placing more emphasis on improving efficiency and investment returns, and their business strategies are becoming more stable; Southeast Asian consumers are increasingly accepting of online shopping and the user experience is constantly improving.

Behind the positive news, it also means that the competitive landscape of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market is constantly changing: although established e-commerce platforms still occupy half of the market, emerging forces such as TikTok Shop are also rapidly rising, especially after merging with Tokopedia in Indonesia, their market share and influence have been significantly enhanced. Meanwhile, new competitors such as TEMU are gradually entering the market, bringing more possibilities to Southeast Asian e-commerce.

Many industry insiders believe that the strategic value and future gameplay of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market should be re evaluated. Obviously, Southeast Asian e-commerce is entering a "new growth era" with steady development and localization as the latest standards, and content driven growth may become the core strategy for the platform's long-term development.

1、The core of stability is localization

For merchants who join major e-commerce platforms, the most crucial factors are growth and stability.

Southeast Asia has a large population, and Internet penetration and e-commerce penetration are growing rapidly. According to the "2024 Southeast Asian E-commerce" report by Moteng Venture Capital, the GMV growth of Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms has skyrocketed from $5.42 billion in 2020 to $11.46 billion in 2023, and the Southeast Asian e-commerce market is still rapidly expanding.

According to a report by Moteng Venture Capital, comparing the GMV growth of four e-commerce platforms, Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia, and TikTok Shop, from 2020 to 2023, the biggest driving force for Southeast Asia's overall e-commerce to maintain high-speed growth in the past three years is mainly from TikTok Shop.

Based on such market growth conditions, the stability and growth potential of e-commerce platforms are equally crucial for merchants.

For Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms, the stable core has always been localization.

Through deep localization, e-commerce platforms can only establish sufficient brand trust and long-term loyalty among local consumers by demonstrating full respect and understanding of local culture, and truly be accepted by the local community and people. Therefore, almost all Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms are making efforts to localize. Each platform provides services such as local language support, adapting to local payment habits, optimizing logistics delivery, recruiting local face teams, and launching entertainment consumption strategies that are in line with local culture.

2、Southeast Asian live streaming e-commerce still surpasses the times

The future growth drivers of Southeast Asian e-commerce are gradually focusing on live streaming e-commerce, and the content+live streaming model still surpasses the times.

The e-commerce ecosystem in Southeast Asia is maturing, and the combination of content and live streaming is gradually being accepted by Southeast Asian consumers.

The live streaming sales method led by TikTok Shop, as a business model that transcends the times, has been validated in the Southeast Asian market for its influence and market potential. By combining short video content with live streaming e-commerce, we have successfully attracted a large number of young users, almost redefining the entire operation of e-commerce in Southeast Asia. This not only meets consumers' new demands for shopping experience, but is also shaping new trends in e-commerce.

In fact, all mainstream e-commerce platforms are "stepping up" in the field of live streaming e-commerce in Southeast Asia.

It is precisely realizing that live streaming e-commerce is becoming a new engine driving market growth in Southeast Asia, and the combination of content and live streaming is the core driving force of this engine. In addition to TikTok Shop, Shopee is also allowing sellers to interact with consumers through live streaming through its Shopee Live feature. Lazada has also launched an entertaining shopping experience in Vietnam, all hoping to get a share of the Southeast Asian content and live streaming e-commerce industry.

A series of live streaming promotions, including the rise of TikTok Shop, Shopee's Shopee Live, and Lazada's entertaining shopping experience, all demonstrate the tremendous success of entertaining shopping experiences in the Southeast Asian market, showcasing the powerful appeal of combining content with e-commerce. The competition in live streaming e-commerce has also entered a white hot stage, and various platforms are waiting to continue increasing their investment in live streaming.

However, in comparison, TikTok Shop has significant natural advantages in the live streaming e-commerce field in Southeast Asia. First of all, Southeast Asia has a population of 650 million, of which young people account for the majority and the penetration rate of mobile Internet is extremely high. TikTok, as a global short video entertainment platform, has over 1 billion monthly active users; In Southeast Asia, the user base is particularly large, with monthly activity reaching 325 million. This large group of young users has a high level of activity on social media, and TikTok Shop's close integration with social media can effectively utilize social influence to promote live streaming sales.

Secondly, TikTok Shop has a close cooperation and innovative marketing strategy with merchants when conducting live streaming sales in the Southeast Asian market. This localization strategy makes the live content more in line with the taste of local consumers.

Some brands and merchants have found a path to successfully operate on TikTok Shop, keeping up with the platform's pace and achieving smooth business development.

During the 8.8 promotion period, many merchants successfully increased their brand and seller sales and achieved significant growth in GMV through TikTok Shop and the strategy of combining specific coupons and live streaming time slots.

These successful business cases also demonstrate the natural superiority of TikTok Shop in the field of live streaming e-commerce in Southeast Asia, as well as its potential as an e-commerce growth engine. From the perspective of the new trends and characteristics of e-commerce in Southeast Asia, the previous model of relying solely on capital investment and subsidies is shifting towards a more sustainable profit model. 

The maturity of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market and changes in consumer demand have led more e-commerce platforms to shift their focus from early aggressive and barbaric markets to longer-term and more stable improvements in basic services and user experience, such as accelerating logistics fulfillment, expanding overseas warehouses, optimizing returns and exchanges, and participating in local marketing.

The precision and development mode of Southeast Asian e-commerce going global are changing, and it also requires merchants and platforms to have a new understanding and evaluation of the Southeast Asian market. For example, instead of simply exporting our own products to multiple markets in Southeast Asia, we will conduct in-depth research on the demand preferences, cultural characteristics, and consumption capabilities of local consumers, and accurately position and develop products; Shift from traditional advertising to more personalized and interactive local marketing methods. In this process, collaborating with local creators through live streaming e-commerce and organizing online and offline promotional activities has become a standard Southeast Asian strategy for many international brands.