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Hello readers,
This week’s visual story looks at the logistics and ecommerce services behind Southeast Asia’s booming online economy.
While this space isn’t well covered by tech media, it’s no less exciting, in my opinion. Legacy players and young startups alike are working to fill the gaps and bottlenecks that hampe the region’s logistics sector.
Creating a map for this rapidly evolving landscape was challenging as players constantly move up and down the value chain. The lines separating different logistics and ecommerce verticals are blurring.
For example, ecommerce majors like Lazada, Shopee, and Tiki have expanded into logistics services by setting up their in-house units. Meanwhile, some logistics providers are becoming more like ecommerce enablers, handholding brands that want to go online.
Some say that the development of ecommerce services in Southeast Asia mimics the growth spurts that happened a couple of years ago in neighboring China, whose logistics prowess is now spreading to other countries.
It is impossible to know exactly what the region’s logistics and ecommerce services space will look like, but there’s a lot to look forward to.
— Nicole Jao, Journalist at Tech in Asia
TOP STORIES THIS WEEK
1️. The key ecommerce logistics players and enablers in Southeast Asia
Following J&T Express’ US$2 billion mega funding round, Southeast Asia’s logistics scene just got a huge boost.
2️. Rocket Internet-backed coffee startup bags $15m funding, to hire 2,000 employees
Flash Coffee has kept its “grab and go” feature at the core of its business model to suit a pandemic-driven world.
3. Sources: Grab to list in New York via merger with Altimeter Capital SPAC unit
The deal will value the SoftBank-backed technology group at about US$35 billion.
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