Shopee has onboarded 300 employees and 20,000 sellers in India: Singapore govt

Making its first statement on Shopee in India, the Singapore government on December 15 said that the Southeast Asian e-commerce firm which entered the country a couple of months ago has already generated 300 jobs and enlisted 20,000 sellers.

“In Singapore, companies continue to recognise the potential of the Indian market and are committed to invest in India. A case in point is Singapore’s e-commerce company Shopee. Since the commencement of Shopee’s penetrations in India a few months ago it has employed close to 300 staff members and onboarded over 20,000 local sellers in India and this further strengthens the economic and –to-people links between our two countries,” said S. Iswaran, Singapore’s transport minister, who is also in charge of trade relations at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit.

Last month Moneycontrol was the first to report that Shopee had launched its operations in India and was clocking 1,00,000 orders on a daily basis.

It shows signs of emerging as a strong challenger that could potentially chip away at incumbents such as US-headquartered Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart and SoftBank-backed Meesho, apart from conglomerates such as Tata and Reliance, which also have huge ambitions for the consumer internet space in India.

To begin with, it seems to be focusing heavily on non-branded products starting as low as Rs 9.  It also offers zero commission for sellers and free shipping for customers.

Moneycontrol recently also reported that Flipkart and Amazon too have started slashing seller commissions amid rising competition in the space.

However, the company, which is part of the Sea Group, is not having a smooth sail in India. Soon after its foray, traders lobby Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) claimed that Shopee’s entry will send shock waves to the offline trader community which is yet to recover from the “unfair trade practises adopted by foreign-funded e-commerce companies”.

CAIT has flagged Sea’s Chinese affiliations, a prickly topic after the clashes between India and China at Galwan Valley. The company counts China’s Tencent as one of its biggest investors.

On November 15, the Delhi High Court issued a notice seeking the Centre’s response on a public interest litigation that sought to block websites and apps operated by SPINN India Pvt Ltd under the name Shopee.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.