TikTok逐鹿东南亚电商市场 | 经济学人(请珍惜每天的推送，也许今天就是最后1天)

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2023-09-16 00:09

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Cece，经济学人粉丝

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Business | Digital technology

商业 | 数字技术

英文部分选自经济学人2023909商业板块

Business | Digital technology

商业 | 数字技术

Island shopping

东南亚岛国电商新变局

TikTokis wading into South-East Asia's e-commerce wars

TikTok逐鹿东南亚电商市场

In march tiktok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, faced angry lawmakers in Washington, who grilled him for five hours on topics ranging from misinformation to mental health. A threat of a ban in America, the short-video app’s largest market, looms large. Other Western governments are making similar noises. TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese firm called ByteDance, has already been locked out of India, another big market, since 2020 on grounds of national security.

今年3月，TikTok首席执行官周受资（Shou Zi Chew）在华盛顿遭到一众怒气冲冲的议员们的连环审问。整场审问长达5小时，问讯的主题包括虚假信息与心理健康等。这一短视频软件的最大市场便是美国，但如今美国却愈发有可能封杀TikTok。其他西方政府也嚷嚷着要颁布禁令。TikTok为中国企业字节跳动旗下产品。自2020年起，该软件的另一大市场印度便以国家安全为由封禁TikTok。

Contrast that with the welcome Mr Chew received in June in Jakarta. He charmed a crowd in the Indonesian capital that included government officials with his plans for the company in South-East Asia, promising to invest “billions of dollars” in the region over the next few years. As uncertainty looms over its prospects elsewhere in the world, TikTok, which in 2020 moved its global headquarters to Singapore, is eyeing South-East Asia’s nearly 700m consumers to bolster its fortunes. Reactions to his talk ranged from favourable to gushing—except among the region’s digital incumbents.

与之形成鲜明对比的是，周受资今年6月在印尼首都雅加达受到热烈欢迎。他讲述了公司在东南亚市场的计划，吸引了政府官员等一众人群，还承诺在未来几年内对该地区投资“数十亿美元”。2020年，TikTok将全球总部迁至新加坡。由于在全球其他市场的前景日益充满不确定性，它正在瞄准东南亚的近7亿消费者，欲借助这一巨大市场来巩固其财富。他在雅加达的一番讲话赢得了一片啧啧称赞，甚至不乏一些吹捧之声，当然这其中并不包括该地区数字公司同行。

注释：

incumbent: denoting a company having a sizeable share of a market

That is because TikTok’s ambitions in South-East Asia go beyond silly dance videos. In 2021 it launched TikTok Shop, which lets users buy products directly from the app. According to Momentum Works, a research firm in Singapore, last year products worth around $5bn were sold globally on its platform. This year the target is $20bn, with three-quarters of that coming from South-East Asian wallets.

这是因为TikTok在东南亚的野心不仅仅是向用户投送无脑的跳舞视频。2021年，它推出了TikTok商城，让用户可以直接从这一应用平台购买产品。根据新加坡研究公司Momentum Works的数据，该平台在去年向全球售出了价值总计约50亿美元的商品。今年，它剑指200亿美元的目标，其中3/4都要靠东南亚人掏腰包买单。

This foray into e-commerce comes at a volatile time for the sector in the region. Shopee, which accounted for almost half the $100bn or so in goods sold online last year in South-East Asia (see chart 1), has reported two quarters of declining sales on its platform. The market value of its Singaporean parent company, Sea Group, is a tenth of the $200bn it reached in October 2021. Sea has cut staff, retreated from ventures beyond South-East Asia and, in August, told investors to brace for losses as it boosts spending in the face of rising competition. Lazada, a Singapore-based e-commerce platform that has probably never turned a profit, is on its fifth ceo in as many years. In March its Chinese parent, Alibaba, added more commotion by splitting itself into six companies.

TikTok涉足电商，恰逢该行业在东南亚不稳定之时。跨境电商虾皮公司（Shopee）几乎占去年东南亚千亿美元在线销售额的半壁江山（见图一），然而其平台销售额已连续两个季度下滑。虾皮的母公司新加坡冬海集团（Sea Group），其市值在2021年10月一度突破2000亿美元，如今却已缩水至只剩下十分之一。冬海集团裁减人员，撤回东南亚之外的投资，并在8月告知投资者做好亏损的准备，理由是它需要增加支出以应对日益激烈的竞争。来赞达（Lazada）是一家位于新加坡的电商平台，尽管5年五度换帅，却可能从未实现盈利。今年3月，来赞达的中国母公司阿里巴巴拆分为6个业务集团，为来赞达的发展增加了更多变数。

Can TikTok take advantage of its rivals’ troubles? The app certainly looks well-suited to South-East Asian online-shopping habits. It already has more than 300m users in the region. A study by Bain, a consultancy, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, found that nearly half of consumers there use social media, particularly short-video and messaging apps, to find products when shopping online. As in China, the home of “social commerce”, the line between entertainment and commerce is blurred among those “mobile first” shoppers, notes Fred Liu of Hayden Capital, an investment firm. To lessen its reliance on live-streamed product reviews, TikTok is testing a marketplace tab in its app, which lets sellers list their goods on the platform without having to pay influencers to plug products in their videos.

对手烦事缠身，TikTok能否抓住机会呢？它看起来非常符合东南亚人的网购习惯，在该地区已有超过3亿用户。咨询公司贝恩（Bain）和Meta（Facebook和Instagram的母公司）的研究表明，东南亚近半数消费者在线上购物时会使用社交媒体，尤其是短视频和即时通讯应用程序，搜寻商品。投资公司海登资本（Hayden Capital）的弗雷德·刘（Fred Liu）指出，和“社交电商”发源地中国的情况一样，在那些“移动优先”的购物者当中，娱乐和商务的界限变得模糊。为了减少对直播产品评测的依赖，TikTok正试验在其应用程序里增加一个市场标签，使卖家可以直接在平台上架商品，而不用付费让网红在视频里挂载他们的商品。

图中英文： Shopee till you drop“虾皮”至死 Sea冬海集团、MercadoLibre自由市场Amazon亚马逊Alibaba阿里巴巴

Don’t count the regional incumbents out just yet, though. Whereas TikTok Shop is dominated by things best-suited for promotional video and impulse purchases, such as clothes and cosmetics, its rivals offer a broader assortment of wares, from gadgets to furniture. Vion Yau of Momentum Worksestimates that the average order value on TikTok is around $5, compared with $8 at Shopee and $10 at Lazada.

尽管如此，当地的老牌企业仍不可忽视。TikTok商城里卖的绝大多数是冲动性消费品或者那些最适合出现在推销视频里的商品，如衣服和化妆品，而其竞争对手的商品种类则更为丰富，从小器具到大家俱，无所不包。墨腾创投公司（Momentum Works）的丘维恩（Vion Yau）预计，TikTok商城的平均订单价格约为5美元，而虾皮和来赞达则分别是8和10美元。

Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia, another local champion, have also built their own logistics networks and payment systems to get around South-East Asia’s tricky peninsular and archipelagic geography, and often shabby infrastructure. This allows the companies to operate more efficiently than TikTok, which relies on external suppliers to store and ship its products, giving it less control over the shopping experience and eating into margins. And though South-East Asians use social-media apps like TikTok to discover new products, they are less likely to buy them there. According to the report by Bain and Meta, more than half of shoppers switch to old-school e-commerce sites at the time of sale, lured by better quality and faster delivery times.

同时，虾皮、来赞达以及当地另一家龙头企业Tokopedia还搭建了各自的物流网络与支付系统，以应对东南亚地区复杂的地理环境（多为半岛和群岛）和大多破旧的基础设施。上述举措能让这些公司的运营相较TikTok更为高效。后者由于仰赖外部供应商来存储和运送产品，导致在消费者购物体验上的掌控力不足，且会摊薄其利润。虽然东南亚网民习惯用TikTok等社交媒体应用来发现新产品，但他们并不大可能在这些平台上下单。据贝恩和Meta公司的报告显示，超过半数的购物者会在购买环节转向传统电商网站，因其品质更佳、物流更快。

TikTok may overcome these hurdles. Thanks to its Chinese parent’s $220bn valuation its pockets are deeper than most. But Shopee’s belt-tightening has given Sea a cash buffer to defend its turf. Lazada got an injection of $845m from Alibaba in July. And the local incumbents are not TikTok’s only competition. Last month Temu, an offshoot of Pinduoduo, another large Chinese e-commerce firm, quietly launched its online store in the Philippines. The battle for South-East Asia’s online shoppers is only getting started.

TikTok或许会克服这些难关。由于其母公司的估值高达2200亿美元，TikTok的资金实力超过了绝大多数竞争对手。不过，虾皮公司开支紧缩，冬海集团得以拥有现金缓冲来捍卫自己的一席之地；阿里巴巴也在7月向来赞达注入了8.45亿美元的资金。而且，除了这些当地老牌企业，TikTok还面临着其他竞争对手。Temu是中国另一大电商企业拼多多的分支机构，上个月刚在菲律宾推出线上商店，只是并未大张旗鼓。各大电商平台的东南亚抢客大战才刚刚拉开序幕。

翻译组：

Alex，不务正业的理工男

Charlie，学点儿轻松的艺术，学着在生活中游戏

Alfredo，今日翻五段，明日翻十段，然后得一夕安寝

校对组：

Constance，痛终有时，爱必将至

UU，允许别人做别人，允许自己做自己

Mosy，绘本、演讲、戏剧英文教育践行者

观点|评论|思考

本周感想

Cassie，一心想吃口译面，早日坐进小黑屋

TikTok电商服务打入东南亚市场：一场娱乐与购物的完美交融

TikTok，这个璀璨的短视频社交星球，正迅猛地掀起东南亚电子商务的风潮。它以创新的社交电商模式、巨星和网红的引领、本土化策略以及用户互动的不断深化，重新塑造了东南亚电子商务市场的面貌。TikTok的电商模式，无疑是引领潮流的杰作。东南亚市场见证了TikTok引入购物功能的壮举，让用户在欣赏精彩的短视频的同时，实时地购买他们钟情的商品。这一创新的社交电商模式，不仅为品牌和商家提供了直接的销售渠道，更是为用户带来了无缝、便捷的购物体验。

名人和网红的力量也起到了催化剂的作用。在东南亚，一些耀眼的明星和炙手可热的网红是TikTok的好伙伴，他们在这个平台上积极地推广各种产品，这种合作不仅为品牌增添了光彩，也为TikTok的电商平台赢得了更多用户的信任，因为用户对偶像的推荐是毫无抵抗力的。

本地化战略是TikTok在东南亚地区电商成功的又一关键因素。这个地区充满了多种语言和文化，因此TikTok积极推进其电商平台本地化，提供多语言支持，并根据当地的购物文化和习惯进行调整。这种精心雕琢的本土化策略，让TikTok更加得到东南亚用户的青睐，从而赢得了更广泛的市场份额。

用户的积极参与与互动是TikTok电商模式的灵魂所在。用户可以在评论中提出问题，分享购物体验，甚至互相交流建议。这种深度的互动不仅增强了用户的购物体验，也为品牌提供了宝贵的反馈和改进机会。

话说回来，尽管TikTok在东南亚地区赢得了不少粉丝和忠实用户，但它也面临一些挑战：愈发激烈的竞争、其他社交媒体平台和电商巨头的涌入以及数据隐私和网络安全的问题等等。因此，要想保住现有的优势，TikTok得好好动动脑筋了。

愿景