Southeast Asia’s platform e-commerce reached US$157.6 billion in 2025, up 22.8%. Shopee held about 53%, TikTok Shop doubled to US$45.6 billion, and content commerce made up about a third of the total. For consumer brands, shoppable video, live selling and creator partnerships are now core growth channels, not experiments.

Why social and content commerce now sit at the centre

Discovery and purchase increasingly happen in the same feed or livestream. A shopper sees a creator demo a serum, taps the product card and checks out without visiting a brand website. That changes where brands need to spend effort: on shoppable video, live slots and creators, not only on catalogue listings.

The hard numbers come from Momentum Works’ Ecommerce in Southeast Asia report, released in April 2026 and tracked by Digital in Asia (>Momentum Works, 2026; >Digital in Asia, 2026; >The Business Times, 2026):

Read one figure carefully. TikTok Shop’s US$45.6 billion is its platform GMV on its own. Counted together with Tokopedia, which TikTok took control of in Indonesia in December 2023, the combined business reached about 65.7% of Shopee’s regional GMV (>Digital in Asia, 2026). That is a comparison with Shopee’s size, not a share of the whole market. Say which definition you are using in any internal deck.

Who leads: Shopee, TikTok Shop and Lazada

Shopee (owned by Singapore-listed Sea Limited) remained the scale leader and ranked first in all six major markets in 2025, according to Momentum Works via Digital in Asia. For many brands it is still the default catalogue, the familiar logistics partner and the calendar that sets the year: 9.9, 11.11, 12.12 and category festivals.

TikTok Shop is the fastest-growing challenger. Its platform GMV doubled in 2025, and it is the engine behind much of the region’s content commerce. If your category sells through demonstration (beauty, skincare, small appliances, snacks), TikTok Shop is where creative and checkout sit closest together.

Lazada (owned by Alibaba) is the smaller third player, but Digital in Asia notes it is gaining in Singapore specifically. It can make sense for brands whose assortment and brand advertising already perform there, as long as you run it properly rather than as an empty third store.

With 98.8% of platform GMV in three players, depth beats breadth. Doing one or two platforms well usually outperforms thin presence everywhere.

What content commerce means in practice

Content commerce is shopping driven by livestreams, short video and creator or affiliate content. Momentum Works puts it at US$49.7 billion in 2025, about 32% of platform GMV, and credits both TikTok Shop’s growth and Shopee’s investment in Shopee Live and affiliate programmes. The Business Times’ coverage of the report adds that in content commerce, speed matters more than polish: the ability to produce, get feedback and adjust quickly wins.

For a brand team, that means:

• Hero SKUs need shoppable video and regular live slots, not only banner images.
• Creators need a clear offer, a product link and tracking, not a vague awareness brief.
• Paid social creative should be recut for Shop, affiliate and organic use.
• Customer service and returns policies must hold up to questions asked live and in public comments.

How to choose where to start

Start where demand and logistics already work, then expand through tests. There are no reliable public conversion-rate league tables for your category, so do not plan around invented averages.

1. Already selling on Shopee? Deepen live selling, vouchers and Shopee’s affiliate programme before opening a second front.
2. Strong on TikTok organically or in paid? Set up or strengthen TikTok Shop so the content that already works can close the sale in-feed.
3. Brand storytelling that suits Lazada in Singapore? Keep a focused assortment and judge it on contribution margin, not GMV alone.
4. Selling across markets? Localise language, pricing, fulfilment and creator briefs. Growth is uneven: Digital in Asia reports Thailand up 51.8% and Malaysia up 47.6% in 2025, while Indonesia, still about 37% of regional GMV, grew only about 2%. One “ASEAN” cut rarely fits all.

Creator and KOL partnerships that pay back

Shift from one-off posts to ongoing, performance-linked partnerships. Singapore agency trend reports for 2026 recommend starting with around ten relevant micro-creators on quarterly partnerships with a revenue share or a fixed-plus-performance fee, rather than paying for single celebrity posts (>MediaPlus, 2026; >Best Marketing Singapore, 2026). Treat that as practitioner guidance to test, not a rule.

• Agree SKUs, Shop links, promo codes and affiliate IDs before anyone films.
• Favour niche trust (parenting, skincare, fitness, home cooking) over follower counts.
• Secure usage rights so strong creator content can run as paid ads.
• Require clear disclosure that fits each market’s advertising rules.
• Check every product claim; AI-assisted scripts still need a human fact check.

Creators create demand, and sponsored product ads inside the marketplace capture it when shoppers search your brand or category. Plan both against the same SKU list. For the paid side of the budget, see our guide to splitting budget between Meta and TikTok ads.

This is the kind of joined-up work we do for consumer brands at Brands Win Agency: paid social creative, influencer programmes and Shop operations built from the same asset family. See how it fits together on our services page.

A checklist for the next two quarters

1. Choose a primary platform based on existing sales and fulfilment strength.
2. Name 20 hero SKUs with the stock and margin to support live and video.
3. Build a monthly calendar of lives and short videos, and reuse clips on Reels and Shorts where rights allow.
4. Contract micro-creators with performance terms; retire one-off posts that cannot be measured.
5. Point marketplace ads at the same hero SKUs.
6. Keep a brand-owned path for repeat buyers, such as a consented WhatsApp list (WhatsApp marketing in Singapore).
7. Keep brand facts consistent on your site and listings so AI answers describe you accurately (SEO vs AEO vs GEO).

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