Going against the tide, WEBUY may become the Southeast Asian version of "Pinduoduo"

But if sellers focus on social e-commerce in Southeast Asia , can they create different sparks?

Singapore’s WEBUY is a typical social e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia . Vincent Xue , the former co-founder of ezbuy , was inspired by Pinduoduo’s success story and decided to start WEBUY .

As an e-commerce platform based on the group-buying model , WEBUY aims to develop people-oriented technologies to provide high-quality catering products for community-centered businesses and consumers .

The way it works is that several people can register on the platform and connect with each other to contact suppliers of a particular item to jointly negotiate a lower price.

Consumers who live in close proximity to one another can collectively purchase food and dining products such as groceries and receive the goods at a designated location , where consumers can save money through bulk purchases and lower delivery costs.

Some sellers said that this is a mutually beneficial development model for both buyers and sellers , because shoppers can buy the same goods for less money, while sellers can benefit by selling more goods to shoppers, and both parties do not have to worry about logistics issues.

In October last year , WEBUY also announced that it had raised US$6 million in a Series A financing round led by venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners.

Together with the GFC-backed seed round, WeBuy has raised $9 million to date .

In fact, the pace of WEBUY 's expansion also shows how popular Southeast Asian consumers are with social e-commerce. Generally, group buying models are popular among price-sensitive consumer groups, and they are not limited to low- and middle-income groups.

Moreover, considering the population size and community-centered population distribution characteristics of countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, it can be seen that WEBUY's development market is not limited to Singapore, and it may create greater possibilities in other Southeast Asian countries.

It is understood that WEBUY has planned to increase its market share by expanding to countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines in 2021 to further expand its business in Southeast Asia.

In addition to WEBUY in Singapore , the social e-commerce market in Southeast Asia has also attracted the attention of many sellers. Data shows that compared with the same period in 2019, the total amount of social e-commerce orders in Southeast Asia in the first half of 2020 more than doubled, and the gross merchandise value (GMV) of the entire region increased threefold.

However, the e-commerce penetration rate of Southeast Asian products and services still hovers at a low level of around 10%-15%, while the figure in China is over 40% . From another perspective, the Southeast Asian social e-commerce market may have greater room for development.

Moreover, in the Southeast Asian market, the integration of community interactivity , supply chain and logistics will bring new shopping experiences to consumers.

Social e-commerce

Cross-border e-commerce market

Southeast Asia