A major player in the online marketplace sector may finally make its long-awaited arrival in Southeast Asia as Techcrunch has reported that Amazon has plans to enter the local market early next year.
According to the report, it appears that Amazon is looking to enter the region via a launch in Singapore. To do so, the company has been covertly acquiring assets and making new hires, all of which has been led by Steven Scrive, head of Amazon’s ASEAN division. Once the Singapore launch is completed, many speculate that Amazon would then proceed to enter the Indonesian market. No word on a Malaysian launch was given, so it appears that we’re going to have to wait a while before that happens.
With Amazon entering the market, the company will now be going toe-to-toe with other e-commerce websites such as Lazada, and 11street. If everything goes well though, we may soon see a day where Amazon Prime is offered locally.
Source: TechCrunch