Shopee opens new regional headquarters in Singapore

Southeast Asian ecommerce firm Shopee announced the opening of its new regional headquarters in Singapore.

The move reflects the startup’s commitment to further nurture talent, develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and create job opportunities in Southeast Asia as it further expands in the region.

Photo credit: Shopee

The new office in Kent Ridge will have the capacity to accommodate up to 3,000 employees. It also features a marketing studio where its “shoppertainment” initiatives Shopee Live and Shopee Quiz are set to be filmed.

According to a recent Salary Benchmark 2019 report, the demand for tech jobs in Singapore increased by about 20% in the last 12 months. In response, Shopee has set up initiatives such as the National Data Science Challenge to upskill local tech talent. It is also looking to launch the I’m the Best Coder Challenge in October.

“Grooming more tech talent and nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem for sellers, including SMEs, will continue to be areas of focus for us,” said Shopee’s chief commercial officer Zhou Junjie. “Going forward, as technology advances and the ecommerce landscape evolves, Shopee will continue to invest ahead of demand and build more advanced capabilities to better serve our users.”

Shopee, operated by New York-listed Sea, was first launched in Singapore in 2015 and has since expanded to neighboring markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The recent Map of Ecommerce by online shopping aggregator iPrice Group and app analytics company App Annie found that the company was the most visited ecommerce platform in Southeast Asia in Q1 2019, beating out Lazada, which previously held the title in Q4 2018.

In Q2 2019, Shopee reported to have achieved 246.3 million orders regionally. It recorded a gross merchandise volume of US$3.8 billion and an adjusted revenue of US$177.4 million, up 201.7% year on year.