Shopee, the largest ecommerce platform in Southeast Asia, was in an all out expansion mode (new markets, new verticals) in 2021 – and its parent Sea Group’s market cap briefly hit US$200 billion.

2022 was a totally different matter. Its market cap is down almost 90%. Its headlines the entire year have been negative – geopolitics, product slowdown, people and profit issues, and probably most troubling – the rise of TikTok Shop.

To discuss some of the common questions and concerns from the community, Momentum Academy held an online event, “Off the Record: Shopee’s turbulent 2022” event on 17 November 2022.

More than 400 investors, founders and corporate executives registered for the event. If you missed the event, you can watch a replay on our YouTube channel here.

During the event, we discussed several aspects of Shopee such as Shopee’s Europe expansion, competition from TikTok Shop, etc. which we have covered in 5 parts in our blog.

In Part 1, we discuss about the year that Shopee had, the macroeconomic factors, competition from rising players and looking beyond just headlines.

In Part 2, we dwell on whether Shopee’s investments in logistics and lending make sense for the business.

In Part 3, we spoke about competition from Lazada and TikTok Shop and their activities in Southeast Asia in 2022. However, it comes down to how committed they are, cooperation with their parent company and implementation.

In Part 4, we uncover Shopee’s Europe expansion and its strategy in Poland.

In Part 5, we look to the future and what would be the state of e-commerce in Southeast Asia.

At the end of the event, we received a lot of questions about Shopee’s business model, the competition from Lazada and TikTok, their e-commerce business’ sustainability and the future of the company. We have answered all these questions here.

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].