Social commerce could add up to $42b to Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market

Social platforms will particular contribute $34b in 2022.

Social commerce could contribute up to $42b to Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market in 2022, Cube Asia reported. 

Of this, $34b will be accounted for e-commerce on social platforms. This includes $12b from conversational commerce, or transactions taking place in messaging apps, around $7.15b from live shopping on social platforms, and $2.5b from community group buy on social platforms. 

The remaining is contributed by live shopping (around $5.85b) and community group buying ($2.5b) on other platforms.

Read more: SEA social commerce growth doubles as shoppers buy, spend more: report

“Whilst COVID significantly increased user time on social platforms, it has also developed longer-term opportunities in e-commerce,” the report noted. 

“Instead of just passing high-quality traffic to e-commerce platforms through advertising, social platforms have matured and sought to capture a greater share of the economic value.” 

In Singapore, for instance, nearly 15% of e-commerce can be linked to social commerce.