JCB and Shopee Announce Strategic Partnership to Offer Greater Flexibility and Savings to Southeast Asian Online Shoppers

Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, and JCB International Co. Ltd. (JCBI), the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., enter into a regional agreement to provide online merchants and shoppers with enhanced payment options. Through this collaboration, the two homegrown Asian brands will jointly provide quality e-commerce and payments services for the Southeast Asian market.

The partnership will launch in July 2020 in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, followed by Singapore and the Philippines in the following months. JCB will offer year-round and seasonal discounts and an additional safe and secure payment method for shoppers. Shopee will also promote participating stores that support JCB.

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Yoshiki Kaneko, President and Chief Operating Officer, JCB International Co., Ltd. said, “JCB is proud to be working with Shopee, a market leader in e-commerce segment, as we further commit to supporting our customers in the fast-growing Southeast Asia region. In particular, as consumer shopping habits shift to online and businesses digitalise their activities, we want to be able to further cater to these evolving needs. Over the past 10 years, Southeast Asia has been a growth market for JCB and we’re confident that together with Shopee, we can provide high-quality payments services for businesses and consumers, and continue to grow together with the region. Going forward, JCB and Shopee will continue to provide attractive and convenient services for our customers.”

A joint report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, found that the Southeast Asia internet economy has soared to $100 billion in 2019, more than tripling in size over the last four years. By 2025, the region’s internet economy is expected to grow to $300 billion. The report also estimates that 150 million Southeast Asians have bought or sold things online, up three times from 2015[1].

Terence Pang, Chief Operating Officer, Shopee, said: “We are honoured to be a strategic business partner with JCB. As homegrown brands, both Shopee and JCB are deeply committed to supporting local Southeast Asian markets and businesses. This partnership further strengthens our ecosystem to enable brands and sellers in Southeast Asia to capture the opportunities in online commerce. For our shoppers, they will benefit from having another secure payment method and enjoy additional promotions. This is even more crucial in this new normal as commerce is increasingly done online and we need to be able to support diverse habits and preferences. We believe that JCB will bring added value to our ecosystem and look forward to accelerating the digital economy in Southeast Asia together.”

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Shopee has experienced good growth in Q1 2020. According to App Annie, in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Shopee emerged as the top in the Shopping category by average monthly active users and downloads, and also the total time spent in-app on Android. With more Southeast Asian consumers going online through their mobile, Shopee is also focused on driving digital payments in the region. In 2019, Shoppe launched ShopeePay, its own integrated mobile wallet.

JCB, the only international payment brand born in Japan, started its overseas expansion in 1981 by building acceptance of travel destinations for Japanese card members. Since the early 2000s, JCB has focused on expanding its international issuing business to Asian markets, and especially for the last ten years, JCB has been committed to, and has focused its efforts on the fast-growing Southwest Asian market. And its card members in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Singapore have more than doubled between 2017 and 2019. JCB is pushing forward the e-commerce segment, which is showing a remarkable progress because of economic growth and the diversification of lifestyles in recent years. JCB is also actively adopting new technologies to enhance customer’s payment experience including contactless technology which is used for payments such as public transportation.

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