We wrote a while ago that Shopee is pursuing a risky but correct strategy.

This strategy is probably paying off, for now. On the same day of Google JD announcement, SEA, Shopee’s parent company, announced that it had completed Convertible Notes offering of US$575 million.

General confidence from equity holders also recovered significantly lately:

Restored confidence

So now with both Tencent portfolio companies armed with significant war chest, Southeast Asia’s ecommerce scene is becoming more interesting. The camps are becoming obvious as well:

Tencent/Google: Shopee, JD, Go-Jek

Alibaba/Softbank: Lazada, Grab, Tokopedia

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Thanks for reading The Low Down (TLD), the blog by the team at Momentum Works. Got a different perspective or have a burning opinion to share? Let us know at [email protected].

 

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Chong Siong
He has worn many hats in the past - selling advertising space, banking services, and even trading stocks. In 2013, longing for a change of scenery, he joined Rocket Internet’s (now Alibaba’s) Lazada as a online marketer in Bangkok, where he experienced first hand life in a startup. He never looked back since - landing lead roles at Rocket’s EasyTaxi (Singapore), Rocket’s MEIG (Dubai), and Bamilo (Tehran). After that, he launched (and ran) the Thai venture for one of Singapore’s biggest cross-border ecommerce. Last year, Chong put his expertise to work, helping an SGX-listed company relocate to and run operations in Thailand. Nowadays, he’s just chilling by the countryside.