Lazada is one of the e-commerce company in Southeast Asia that companied by Alibaba Group and found by Rocket Internet and Pierre Poignant in 2012. Nevertheless, the co-founder of Lazada Group and chief strategy officer, Magnus Ekbom said once at Tech in Asia Conference that held in this year, “as an entrepreneur, the first thing I would do is probably not to try to crack Indonesia”. Indonesia is one of the largest markets in Southeast Asia and also widely regarded as a significant and competitive market with around 270M population of people.
Ekbom thinks that founders could consider to other markets in Southeast Asia such as Philippine, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. He has had experiences working in the cross-border business, based on his experiences, he also advises to companies if they shouldn’t go cross border until they are ready to do so.
He clarifies that operating across different countries will increase the level of complexity to business and companies should make sure that the market they chose is the right place to do global marketing before move to the other market target.
Meanwhile, Ekbom points up that entrepreneurs should always be curious about every possible market target due to their unique diversity.
LOCALIZATION
With a huge rate of urbanization, Southeast Asia is a great market for Chinese entrepreneurs even with different taste and culture that isn’t simple at all.
Ekbom suggested to companies that they couldn’t “capture the essence of a market” if it is a business from China to Southeast Asia without any awareness to relevant consumers that they trying to serve. The localized strategy is the most crucial thing that entrepreneurs should pay attention to.
Lazada Group affiliated with Alibaba Group to help globally marketing further. “Southeast Asia is a place where companies should be built and not just a target market for other companies to come into,” said Ekbom pointing to the diversity of each region. “money being invested as always good, but Southeast Asia should and also needs to build its own version of what our consumers, SMEs, and brand are looking for,” he added.
CHINESE INVESTMENT
Helen Wong, the partner at Qiming Venture Partners, said that the acceleration in Southeast Asia isn’t as fast as she expected. She expects china’s investments will go well in Southeast Asia. Chinese investors are hard to find a good chance to do marketing across the region.
“I think that investor money is very simple. It will go where the growth is,” Ekbom shared. It such as a new opportunity for investors in Southeast Asia.
Source : techinasia
