YouTube and Shopee Collaborate to Launch YouTube Shopping in Southeast Asia
Reuters reports that YouTube and Shopee have recently announced a partnership to develop a new e-commerce platform called YouTube Shopping, initially launching in Indonesia with plans to expand across Southeast Asia. This move is aimed at competing with rivals such as TikTok Shop.
With this new platform, users will be able to make purchases on YouTube through links directing them to Shopee, which is owned by Sea.
The companies plan to expand the platform to Thailand and Vietnam in the coming weeks. YouTube Shopping is already operational in South Korea and the United States.
Prior to this, in September 2024, YouTube introduced the “Shopping on YouTube” feature in Vietnam, allowing content creators to attach product links from Shopee directly to their videos, similar to the shopping cart feature on TikTok.
Additionally, YouTube channels of content creators will feature a “Shop” section, making it easier for viewers to find products.
Taking on TikTok:
Back in Indonesia, YouTube’s Asia-Pacific Director, Ajay Vidyasagar, stated that the rapid growth of online shopping in the country was one of the reasons behind this launch.
According to Reuters, the introduction of YouTube Shopping marks a collaboration between Alphabet (Google) and Shopee to counter the threat of TikTok Shop, owned by ByteDance, especially after the Chinese company acquired Indonesia’s largest e-commerce platform, Tokopedia.
When asked about the scale of the project, Vidyasagar described the partnership as significant but declined to provide further details. He also mentioned that YouTube Shopping would be expanded to include partners other than Shopee in a phased manner.
If this is true, YouTube Shopping could unite TikTok Shop’s competitors to challenge the Chinese giant.
In 2023, TikTok Shop recorded a Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) of 16.3 billion USD in Southeast Asia, nearly quadrupling its figure from the previous year. This success has solidified the platform as the second-largest e-commerce player in the region, just behind Shopee.
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