With the rapid development of the digital economy, it took Malaysia’s e-commerce a decade to finally reach its current scale. The penetration rate of Internet services and the use of computers have greatly increased, prompting the emergence of e-commerce.
(I) E-commerce platforms that “bloom everywhere”
At the end of the 20th century, e-commerce platforms led by eBay and Lelong developed rapidly. As an auction website, Lelong allows more people to sell products in a more convenient way, while eBay allows Malaysian consumers to buy overseas goods. This encourages Malaysian consumers to use credit cards, debit cards and online bank transfers. Users who are not familiar with online payments can easily buy or sell goods through cash on delivery (COD).
In 2012, five other e-commerce platforms joined the Malaysian e-commerce wave, including Lazada, Zalora, Rakuten, Hermo, and Ezbuy. Lazada, a new platform supported by Rocket Internet, raised about US$814 million in two years and was able to grow rapidly and become popular in Malaysia. In 2014, Lazada surpassed Lelong and eBay to become the most searched e-commerce platform in Malaysia. To this day, Lazada remains one of the most successful e-commerce platforms in Malaysia.
In 2015, GoShop, 11Street and Shopee emerged. Shopee became one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, and within two years, Shopee quickly developed into the strongest competitor of Azada. Shopee’s strategy is different from other e-commerce websites. Most of the other e-commerce websites started from the PC side, while Shopee first launched a mobile website and shopping app. However, Lazada did not lose in this battle. In order to get a share of the e-commerce wave in Southeast Asia, domestic e-commerce giant Alibaba invested $4 billion in Lazada. With such support, Lazada still has the highest traffic on the PC side.
With the rise of e-commerce in Malaysia, online shopping festivals have also attracted more and more attention from consumers, such as “MYCyberSale”, “Double Eleven”, “Black Friday”, “Cyber Monday” and “Double Twelve” shopping festivals.
In the next 10 years, Malaysia’s e-commerce will develop in a diversified direction, and both enterprises and the government will take measures to further promote the growth of e-commerce. Among them is the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) project initiated by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) commissioned by the Malaysian government. The DFTZ will strive to provide assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises, and with the expertise provided by Alibaba, assist local small and medium-sized enterprises to market themselves online. In addition, competitive e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Shopee are expected to continue to “fight” for consumers.
(II) Alibaba and Tencent start the “payment battle”
Malaysia has always been an attractive market for e-commerce sellers. Malaysia has more than 22 million Internet users. It is expected that by 2020, e-commerce will account for more than 20% of the country’s DP. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 97% of the country, will lead the development of e-commerce in Malaysia. The smoke of gunpowder in the payment field is also unusually thick. Malaysia already has 20 million WeChat users, and they are all keen to use Chinese Internet products. Tencent has now obtained the Malaysian electronic payment license, and through cooperation with local banks, WeChat payment services have been launched one after another.