ShopeePay’s “join late, win later” strategy

Every day, 100k+ smart people read our newsletter. You can sign up here.

Hello readers,

Until late last year, many shops in the Greater Jakarta area were filled with streamers showing cashback promos from payment apps. But since 2020 began, these pops of color started to disappear except for the last one hanging: ShopeePay’s bright orange banners.

This offline trend also happened online. When Shopee launched a free delivery promo for orders paid via ShopeePay, I noticed that more of my friends and relatives started using this new payment method.

The heavy promotions seem to have propelled ShopeePay to the top, allowing it to outpace players that entered the Indonesian e-wallet market earlier, according to several studies. These efforts could continue in the months to come, with a little help from Shopee’s parent firm, Sea Group, and its sister firm, gaming giant Garena, whose healthy profits can fuel Shopee and ShopeePay’s growth.

Sea Group also used its “join late, win later” strategy when it entered Indonesia’s ecommerce scene in 2015. Can the same approach be successful for payments? That all depends on whether ShopeePay’s rivals can put up a strong counter-effort and fend off the competition.

— Aditya Hadi Pratama, Journalist at Tech in Asia

TOP STORIES THIS WEEK

1️. How Shopee’s sleeping giant struck while its rivals fought fire
Garena’s profit may pave a path for ShopeePay to win the e-wallet race in Indonesia, but its competitors aren’t staying still.

2️. Can Grab’s anti-fraud foray become its AWS?
We evaluate Grab Defence’s potential and explore the motivations behind this strategy.

3️. Carousell CEO joins seed round in Singapore mental health startup Intellect
Intellect plans to use the new funds to drive its market expansion across Asia, as well as invest in clinical research.

4. Micromobility turns a corner as e-scooter startups like Beam become profitable
Despite bike-sharing’s demise, it seems like micromobility still has a place in cities.