Southeast Asian ecommerce is about to reach a whole new level

Image by TIA. Photo of Jack Ma originally from VG Photo Studio.

All of a sudden, online payments in Southeast Asia has gotten much more interesting. Bloomberg reported that Ant Financial, a financial company under Alibaba, plans to buy a 20 percent stake in a Thai payments company:

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s financial affiliate is planning to purchase a 20 percent stake in Thailand’s Ascend Money in a bid to become a key financial services player in Southeast Asia.

An investment into Ascend Money, parent of True Money and Ascend Nano, would help Ant Financial expand its online payments and small loans business in Southeast Asia. The company, which is said to be valued at about US$60 billion, is following billionaire Ma’s aspirations for global expansion as it ventures into countries including South Korea and India.

This development came soon after news that Facebook is testing a feature for users to pay for products listed on Facebook Pages. The trial uses technology from fintech startup 2C2P. Facebook reportedly has plans to extend the trial to the rest of Southeast Asia.

Another noteworthy development in the Land of Smiles is the launch of Line Man, an ecommerce delivery service by Line, a messaging app which is popular in the country.

Line Man is limited to Bangkok. That’s because Thailand is a top market for Line, the company says. Photo credit: Lalamove.

These moves are significant for two reasons.

First, it shows that Thailand can’t be ignored as an ecommerce market.

Indonesia is the de facto leader in Southeast Asia when it comes to online shopping, with big and small ecommerce players like Rocket Internet and Tokopedia vying for the wallets of its massive population.

But the recent investments by these big tech companies remind the rest of the world that Thailand also has huge potential. Facebook apparently picked Thailand for the trials first because of its “large market for social media commerce,” according to TechCrunch.

Alibaba is eating Southeast Asian ecommerce

Second, these developments in the payments space could be a harbinger for another growth spurt in Southeast Asian ecommerce.