Leading Mobile e-commerce App

September 24, 2020

Singapore-based Shopee is a mobile e-commerce app which was launched in 2015. It is now a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Shopee is part of SEA Ltd, the biggest online gaming company to list on the New York Stock Exchange. SEA has also a digital payments and financial services provider under SeaMoney which includes products offered under brand names AirPay, ShopeePay, ShopeePayLater and other brands tailored to countries in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.  

Founder of Shopee, Forrest Li, 42, holds an engineering degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He is the Chairman and Group Chief Executive of SEA Ltd. In an interview with Forbes, Li said he was inspired by Steve Jobs to find the thing that you love to do. Li liked online gaming. He had two powerful business models from China to emulate – Onling gaming giant Tencent and e-commerce giant Alibaba. Li launched start up Garena as an online games developer and publisher in 2009 with two co-founders, David Chen and Gang Ye.  Li, Chen and Ye are originally from China but have taken on Singapore citizenship. David Chen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering with First Class Honors from the National University of Singapore. He is now the Chief Product Officer of Shopee.  Gang Ye holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is now the Chief Operating Officer of SEA Ltd. The big take off for Garena came when it secured the distributorship of League of Legends from its publisher Riot Games in 2010 for Southeast Asia and Taiwan. In addition the owner of Riot Games, Tencent Holdings Ltd, an ecommerce and gaming technology giant from China, invested a stake of 40% in Garena.

Regional Managing Director of Shopee, Ian Ho, oversees Shopee’s Malaysian operations. Ho said that during the MCO Malaysians used the Shopee App to buy  household items such as toilet rolls, wet wipes, face masks and hand sanitisers, dry food and beverage goods such as cooking oil, canned food, coffee and rice, as well as fresh produce such as fish, chicken, beef and vegetables. 2020 has changed the way Malaysians work, shop and live.

 

Read more 

  1. Esports Observer. 25 September 2019. Riot to Form New League Covering SEA, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Graham Ashton. https://esportsobserver.com/riot-garena-pcs/ 
  2. The Star. 19 March 2020. Business as usual for Shopee. https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2020/03/19/business-as-usual-for-shopee 
  3. New Straits Times. 28 August 2017. Izwan Ismail. Whoppee, It’s Shopee! https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/bots/2017/08/273636/whoopee-its-shopee 
  4. Sea Limited. https://www.seagroup.com/home 
  5. Forbes. John Kang. Forrest Li’s Sea Ltd Surges As Pandemic Drives Digitalization Across ASEAN. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkang/2020/08/19/forrest-lis-sea-ltd-surges-as-pandemic-drives-digitalization-across-asean/#d365b46347ab 
  6. The Straits Times. 23 September 2017. Tencent-backed Sea, formerly Garena, begins process for New York IPO. https://www.straitstimes.com/business/tencent-backed-sea-formerly-garena-begins-process-for-new-york-ipo 
  7. Techinasia. 26 October 2009. Bernard Leong. In Conversation with Forrest Li, Founder of Garena. https://www.techinasia.com/in-conversation-with-forrest-li-founder-of-garena 
  8. Reuters. 20 October 2017. Tencent-backed Sea Ltd jumps in debut, but soon reverses course.  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sea-ipo-idUSKBN1CP24G 
  9. Inc4. 8 May 2017. Ambika Chopra. Singapore Based Garena Rebrands As Sea, Raises $550 Mn To Expand In Indonesia. https://inc42.com/buzz/sea-raises-550-mn/ 
  10. SEA Group. Our Leadership. https://www.seagroup.com/aboutus/leadership