Alibaba ushered high growth of e-commerce in Malaysia: Gdex CFO

GD Express (GDEX) chief financial officer Lim Chee Seong in a recent interview with Xinhua said the company’s major shift to e-commerce began several years ago with the collaboration with Xiaomi, a Chinese tech giant, but it was only the arrival of Alibaba that ushered in high growth.

Lim estimated that now 40 percent of the GDEX’s business is e-commerce related, among which 30 percent is from cross-border trade, mainly through Taobao and Tmall, two major online shopping platforms operated by Alibaba.

Lim acknowledged Alibaba’s role in reshaping the landscape of e-commerce in Malaysia, saying though the effect of Digital Free Trade Zone, which has Alibaba and the Malaysian government as the main backers, is yet to be materialized, people are more and more getting used to buying things online.

A month-by-month breakdown chart provided by GDEX shows that in December, 32.42 percent of the delivery volume was from China while another 36.37 percent was generated via Lazada, a Southeast Asian e-commerce platform, also controlled by Alibaba, said Xinhua.

In a sign underlining the potential of e-commerce in Malaysia, Lazada reported earlier that its 12.12 shopping festival generated a total sales volume of more than 250 million U.S. dollars, more than double that of the previous year.

It is not only GDEX that is expanding to embrace the next wave of e-commerce boom. Century Logistics Holdings, backed by CJ Korea Express Corp, is reported to be ready to enter the e-commerce market.

Going forward, Lim expected more competition but said the business still has a lot of potential before major consolidation.