There is a n eye-opening report from App Annie that I suggest you read. Entitled “Mobile Minute: eCommerce Marketplaces Expand as COVID-19 Continues to Drive Mobile Shopping,” the survey reports on the dramatic growth in e-commerce apps since the inception of the coronavirus.
What grabbed me was App Annie’s ranking of e-commerce companies based upon how many people had downloaded their app. According to App Annie, below are the most heavily downloaded shopping apps in the world:
Wish…………..…………………United States
Amazon…………………………United States
Shopee…………………………..Singapore
Shein……………………………..China
AllExpress*………………………China
Lazada*…………………………..China
Paytm……………………………..India
MercadoLibre…………………….Argentina
eBay……………………………….United States
Alibaba……………………………..China
*Subidiary of Alibaba
The above list is a pretty big wake-up call for anyone who thinks that e-commerce begins and ends with Amazon. But who are these other players?
According to App Annie, Wish has over 300 million customers buying from 100 million manufacturers. It features very, very low price products and according to this Forbes article: “Meet The Billionaire Who Defied Amazon And Built Wish, The World’s Most-Downloaded E-Commerce App,” Wish caters to the Dollar General / Family Dollar type of customer; folks on limited means.
Singapore based, Shopee, is the larget e-commerce site in Southeast Asia and Brazil.
Shein focuses on clothing and accessories for women.
According to Wikipedia, AliExpress is an online retail service based in China that is owned by the Alibaba Group. Launched in 2010, “it is made up of small businesses in China and other locations, such as Singapore, that offer products to international online buyers.”
Lazada is another ecommerce company owned by powerhouse, Alibaba Group. Chinese owned but based in Singapore, Lazada also claims to be the largest e-commerce site in Southeast Asia.
Not so much an e-commerce site as much as a payment service, According to Wikipedia: Paytm is”…available in 11 Indian languages and offers online use-cases like mobile recharges, utility bill payments, travel, movies, and events bookings as well as in-store payments at grocery stores, fruits and vegetable shops, restaurants, parking, tolls, pharmacies and educational institutions with the Paytm QR code.”
Mercado Libre has close to 180 million users all across South America and Central America. Founded in 1999, it appears to be the Amazon of South America.
Alibaba, which owns AllExpress and Lazada (see above) is huge, generating almost $510 billion in revenue. As a comparison, Amazon generates almost $281 billion in revenue.
There’s a big world out there. With which of these companies are you doing business?
