Amazon to kick off Southeast Asian expansion in Singapore
In what could become a battle of the e-commerce giants, Amazon is reportedly setting up shop in Singapore as early as this week to expand its online business to Southeast Asia and challenge Alibaba, which is also spreading in the region with its brands Lazada and AliExpress, and compete with other regional heavyweights such as Taobao and Qoo10.
According to tech news site Techcrunch, Amazon’s launch is said to be bringing its Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime Now and its conventional e-commerce offerings to Singapore. The company would then expand from there to neighbouring countries.
There is no official confirmation from Amazon yet, but there have been hints for the launch on social media where obviously well-informed Singapore bloggers showed off packages that did not mention Amazon directly, but the brand’s distinctive blue tick.
Amazon’s move comes as its main global competitor Alibaba has been rapidly expanding in Southeast Asia over the past year, led by major investments in Malaysia like the Digital Free Trade Zone, its first e-hub outside of China, along with the availability of the Alipay digital wallet and Alibaba Cloud service.
Alibaba also preempted Amazon’s arrival with the acquisition of Singapore-based e-grocery company Redmart, and the introduction of a Prime-like membership service in partnership with Uber and Netflix. Alibaba is also considering a substantial investment in Indonesia’s biggest online marketplaces Tokopedia.
E-commerce in Southeast Asia is tipped to grow from $5.5 billion in 2015 to $87.8 billion by 2025, according to the report. That’s fueled by an emerging middle class and increased Internet access with currently 3.8 million new users are coming online per month.
In what could become a battle of the e-commerce giants, Amazon is reportedly setting up shop in Singapore as early as this week to expand its online business to Southeast Asia and challenge Alibaba, which is also spreading in the region with its brands Lazada and AliExpress, and compete with other regional heavyweights such as Taobao and Qoo10. According to tech news site Techcrunch, Amazon's launch is said to be bringing its Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime Now and its conventional e-commerce offerings to Singapore. The company would then expand from there to neighbouring countries. There is no official confirmation from...
In what could become a battle of the e-commerce giants, Amazon is reportedly setting up shop in Singapore as early as this week to expand its online business to Southeast Asia and challenge Alibaba, which is also spreading in the region with its brands Lazada and AliExpress, and compete with other regional heavyweights such as Taobao and Qoo10.
According to tech news site Techcrunch, Amazon’s launch is said to be bringing its Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime Now and its conventional e-commerce offerings to Singapore. The company would then expand from there to neighbouring countries.
There is no official confirmation from Amazon yet, but there have been hints for the launch on social media where obviously well-informed Singapore bloggers showed off packages that did not mention Amazon directly, but the brand’s distinctive blue tick.
Amazon’s move comes as its main global competitor Alibaba has been rapidly expanding in Southeast Asia over the past year, led by major investments in Malaysia like the Digital Free Trade Zone, its first e-hub outside of China, along with the availability of the Alipay digital wallet and Alibaba Cloud service.
Alibaba also preempted Amazon’s arrival with the acquisition of Singapore-based e-grocery company Redmart, and the introduction of a Prime-like membership service in partnership with Uber and Netflix. Alibaba is also considering a substantial investment in Indonesia’s biggest online marketplaces Tokopedia.
E-commerce in Southeast Asia is tipped to grow from $5.5 billion in 2015 to $87.8 billion by 2025, according to the report. That’s fueled by an emerging middle class and increased Internet access with currently 3.8 million new users are coming online per month.
