Sea’s Shopee enters the online market in Mexico with the launch of its app

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Southeast Asia-based Sea Ltd, has launched an app for Mexico, where it plans to offer online sales in its second market in the Americas, a Reuters review showed on Monday.

Shopee, Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform, launched a small presence in Brazil in 2019 as part of a pilot initiative by its cross-border team and has since been scaling up its operations, according to market researchers.

While sources in January said the e-commerce division was assessing the potential of other Latin American markets, the company has not yet announced plans for other countries.

Expansion into Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, could represent a major new growth opportunity in cross-border sales – a market already explored by shopping app Wish.

According to the app’s announcement on Apple’s Mexico website, Shopee will offer free shipping throughout Mexico on items including electronics, clothing, toys and household items.

From the app’s description, Shopee aims to offer a shopping platform similar to existing ventures in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

“We launched the service in Mexico to offer the same experience,” the description reads.

Shopee’s Mexico website (shopee.com.mx) was not yet live and it was unclear whether the company had started accepting orders.

Sea, the Singapore-based technology group, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sea shares are up more than 400% in the past year. On Monday, the company’s market capitalization reached $132.68 billion. In December, it raised nearly $3 billion in a share offering.

(Reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore, Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)