The company has always wanted to bring its service to customers outside of China. Its strategy is multi-pronged. In the last few years, the giant has found success in Russia. The Southeast Asia-focused marketplace competed after it was bought by the Rocket Internet empire.
In the 18 months ended September, the company grew 80% to 130 million active consumers. As of September, its monthly active users were 159 million, larger than its average monthly users.
Like its Chinese sister app, Taobao, Lazada has entertainment features that try to lock users in, making it more than a pure shopping app.
The amount of sales before expenses are deducted is the gross merchandise value. As of September, 922,000 sellers were active monthly on the marketplace, more than doubling the pool size from a year ago.
Chinese tech giants are competing for a piece of Southeast Asia's flourishing digital economy. Sea Group, which operates Shopee, is one of the main investors in Tencent. Sea had $35.4 billion in GMV in 2020.
In early 2020, the Indonesia e-commerce unit of JD.com rose up to a valuation of $1 trillion, according to a report.
The new Southeast Asian fund is interested in Chinese firms.
