Southeast Asia’s content commerce market is on track to reach US$77.9 billion in 2026, after generating US$33.8 billion in GMV in the first half of the year. Content commerce – including live, short video and content-led affiliates – now accounts for an estimated 37% of the region’s platform ecommerce GMV, up from 20% just two years ago.
Live commerce has been one of the biggest drivers of this shift. For many brands, it has moved from an experiment to a regular part of the ecommerce mix – and the returns today can still be attractive. The question is how long those returns will last.
Today we are releasing Live Commerce in Southeast Asia 2026, our latest report looking at the region’s live and broader content commerce ecosystem, extending our long-running ecommerce coverage into the content-commerce layer.
Of the different content-commerce formats, live is perhaps the easiest for brands to understand and adopt. It has moved from an experimental channel to becoming part of the standard ecommerce mix.
As more brands enter, platforms evolve their strategies and AI changes the operating model, brands face a different question: what should they be building for now – and what advantage will actually last?
A few key findings we uncover in the report:
- Live commerce works, but performance varies significantly by category. Rising competition will also put pressure on the economics brands enjoy today.
- Not all live GMV is incremental. Brands need to distinguish sales genuinely created by live from demand that might otherwise have converted through product pages, short video, affiliates or other channels.
- AI is starting to change the operating economics of live. In selected cases we studied, AI livestreaming costs around 20–25% of a comparable human operation while generating around 80% of human livestream GMV per hour.
- Live is only one part of content commerce. As execution becomes easier to replicate, brands need to think about how live works together with short video, affiliates, creators and broader brand building.
Find out more in Live Commerce in Southeast Asia 2026, now available at US$59.95.
👉 Live Commerce in Southeast Asia 2026
