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Ardi Wirdana · · 2 min readDepartures at Shopline after $183m Joyy-led takeover
Hong Kong-headquartered ecommerce enabler Shopline has parted ways with almost 80 of its employees in Southeast Asia, including all of its country managers in the region, Tech in Asia has learned.
A LinkedIn search shows that most of the exits took place in the first half of this year and that the firm’s top executives in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore had departed. It also reveals that the firm has around 640 employees remaining.
Shopline co-founders Tony Wong (left) and Fiona Lau / Photo credit: Shopline
Shopline’s LinkedIn page shows that around six staff members remain in Vietnam and only three are left in Thailand. Over 40 employees in those countries left the company in 2022.
The startup, however, doesn’t seem to be letting up on regional expansion. It appears to be hiring for its Singapore and Malaysia operations.
Meanwhile, its LinkedIn jobs page also shows that the company is building a team in Australia, which would count as Shopline’s eighth market since the company was founded in 2013.
Funding this expansion is the US$183 million it secured from Duowan Entertainment, which is wholly owned by Nasdaq-listed Chinese livestreaming giant Joyy.
The funding announcement states that “the financial results of Shopline will be consolidated by JOYY INC,” indicating that Shopline is operating as a subsidiary of the livestreaming firm.
Shopline’s co-founder and former CEO, Raymond Yip, seems to confirm this by stating on his LinkedIn profile that Shopline had been acquired by Joyy.
Launched in Hong Kong and Taiwan by Yip, Tony Wong, and Fiona Lau, Shopline provides tools for small businesses to easily build and manage online shops. Since then, it has also expanded to China and Southeast Asia, fueled by investments from a host of VCs including 500 Startups, Ardent Capital, CDIB Capital Group, and the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (a not-for-profit initiative by the Alibaba Group).
New management
To lead Shopline’s efforts in the Southeast Asia and Australia region, the company in August appointed former Shopify Asia-Pacific leader Raveen Kumar as regional manager. He will be in charge of operations in Singapore and Australia, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Meanwhile, heading the company’s business in all of its existing markets is Shopline global general manager Joshua Qiao, who is also head of global operations at Joyy.
In 2020, Joyy – together with its VC offshoot, Engage Capital – backed Shopline’s US$20 million round.
Shopline and Joyy did not respond to our requests for comments related to this story.
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The departures involve around 80 people across several Southeast Asian markets, though Shopline has also started to build a team in Australia.
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