YouTube and Shopee Partner to Launch Online Shopping Service in Southeast Asia

The partnership enables users to shop on YouTube through Shopee links, expanding the e-commerce experience.

YouTube and Shopee have announced the launch of an online shopping service called YouTube Shopping in Indonesia, with plans to expand to Southeast Asia. This move allows users to shop on YouTube via Shopee links, further integrating e-commerce into the video-sharing platform.

Leaders of the two platforms have revealed plans to expand this service to Thailand and Vietnam in the coming weeks. Currently, YouTube Shopping is operational in Korea and the US. The partnership is expected to enhance the online shopping experience for users in Southeast Asia.

The YouTube Shopping feature works similarly to adding a shopping cart on TikTok Shop, but only accepts products from Shopee. This collaboration is seen as a strategic move by the two social media and e-commerce giants to compete with the increasingly popular TikTok Shop.

E-commerce Market Trends in Southeast Asia

A recent statistic shows that the value of goods purchased on TikTok Shop in Southeast Asia reached $16.3 billion in 2023, a nearly fourfold increase from the previous year. This growth has positioned TikTok Shop as the second-largest platform in the region, after Shopee.

In Vietnam, a report by YouNet ECI, an e-commerce channel development consulting and analysis company, reveals that consumers spent VND 87,370 billion shopping on the four largest multi-industry e-commerce platforms in Vietnam in the second quarter of 2024. This includes Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada, and Tiki, marking a 10.4% increase from the first quarter.

Shopee’s total transactions alone reached VND 62,380 billion, accounting for 71.4% of the market share. TikTok Shop ranked second with VND 19,240 billion, equivalent to 22%. The remaining two platforms, Lazada and Tiki, accounted for VND 5,160 billion (5.9%) and VND 584 billion (0.7%), respectively.

In the first six months of the year, Shopee’s total transactions reached VND 116,120 billion, accounting for 69.7%, while TikTok’s was VND 37,600 billion, accounting for 22.6%. This development has transformed the online retail market into a competitive race between Shopee and TikTok Shop.