Shopee took only two years to become Brazil’s most-downloaded shopping app. It was able to do it by winning users to its low-cost marketplace with its game-changing approach to e-commerce: in-app mini-games offering coupons to winning users. This Singapore-based company has combined online shopping with the gaming nous of its separate mobile game arm Garena – creator of “Free Fire”, Brazil’s most-downloaded title for eight consecutive quarters – to generate sale analysts estimated at almost a third of local champion Magazine Luiza SA.
Back in Asia, Shoppe took only five years to become Southeast Asia’s most-visited e-commerce website, overtaking the likes of Lazada, backed by China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tokopedia, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. Analyst Jianggan Li at advisory firm Momentum Works stated, “Shopee has a track record in Southeast Asia of coming into the market late, looking at how others have solved existing problems and then building a system to leapfrog those issues.” Shopee’s early surge highlights the space left for foreign entrants to grow in a sector once dominated by regional firms like Magazine Luiza and Argentina’s MercadoLibre Inc.
