If the world is likely to take the lead in replicating the success of e-commerce in China, it must be Southeast Asia.

 

Before the 11.11 arrival, the digital free trade area, the first overseas eWTP (electronic world trade platform) pilot area in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was fully operational. eWTP is a new global trading platform being developed by Alibaba and a key part of Alibaba's Southeast Asian Chess game.

As the first co-founder of the eWTP overseas pilot zone, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak met with Alibaba Chairman Ma Yun for the first time on November 4, 2016. They only talked for a few minutes and decided to go there in Malaysia. Pilot "eWTP.

What they both have in common is that as innovators they all want to change the lives of more people in their own fields. Ma hopes that Alibaba will become the world's fifth-largest economy and serve 2 billion users worldwide. Najib hopes to make Malaysia a regional hub through e-commerce and achieve exports worth 32 billion ringgit in 2025, making it one of the top 20 countries in the world economy.

Regardless of whether their expectations are fulfilled on schedule, at least, it is foreseeable that in the coming weeks tens of thousands of cargo parcels will arrive in all parts of Southeast Asia from mainland China through this newly established logistics hub; more than 1,900 Malaysian SMEs will also pass Ali Baba's platform to introduce and sell their products to consumers in China.

Localization: crack the last kilometer

It is no accident that Southeast Asia has become the preferred "front" of Alibaba's global trade strategy. According to a report released by Singapore's sovereign funds Temasek and Google, Southeast Asia is currently the fastest-growing market for Internet users worldwide with about 260 million subscribers currently expected to grow to 480 million by 2020. It is estimated that by 2025, the Internet economy in Southeast Asia will reach 200 billion U.S. dollars, mainly due to electricity suppliers, online media and online travel.

Southeast Asia has 500 million people, of which 200 million are active e-commerce users. However, the "fragmented" distribution of Southeast Asia shows that the distance from the easternmost point of Indonesia to the westernmost point is more distant from the east coast to the west coast of the United States, which determines the difficulty of logistics coverage. However, differences in consumer demand caused by different languages ??and cultures, Also decided that Southeast Asia is a highly complex market.

As the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, Lazada is one of the few companies that makes early investments in this market. But Aimone, one of Lazada's founders and chief platform officer, acknowledged that two years ago the company's business was hit hard by "double 11s." Obviously, we needed new technology to enhance consumer life and spending Experience, "he said.

Founded in 2012, Lazada operates in six Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam and has more than 100,000 local and international sellers. Since 2016, Alibaba has twice invested a total of 2 billion U.S. dollars to purchase 83% of Lazada's shares.

Miyamoto, Lazada's senior vice president, spent 4 years at Alibaba where he was responsible for strategic investments and consolidation in Southeast Asia. Today, his main job is to introduce Alibaba's technological strengths and methodology in the field of e-commerce. Previously, Lynx attracted more than 30,000 Chinese merchants in less than a week at Malaysia's Lazada's "TaoBaoCollection" site.