Mumbai: Singapore-based gaming giant C Ltd’s e-commerce arm, Shopee, on Monday decided to pull out of India’s retail industry, marking its second comeback this month as the loss-making corporation faces disappointing growth prospects in view of the global market. is falling Uncertainty”.
Shopee’s withdrawal from India comes days after Indian authorities banned its parent company C’s gaming app Free Fire as part of a wider crackdown on Chinese apps.
While C Ltd., is based in Singapore, the company has come under scrutiny due to its Chinese connections, particularly a Tencent investment. C’s stock price on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) fell nearly 6% on Monday to $116.12 per share, after falling earlier in the day.
Following India’s ban on its gaming app last month, the company’s market valuation fell by more than $16 billion.
The e-tailer, which competes with Meesho, Flipkart and Amazon India, will shut its shutters on March 29. This comes just weeks after e-commerce arm Shopee announced its exit from France.
Shopee India announced in a notification to merchants that it will cease operations in India on March 29 at 12 am. Buyers will be unable to place fresh orders, while sellers have been given time till May 30 to process withdrawals and returns.
Nonetheless, the company said that earlier orders would be processed and fulfilled “as normal” and that it would continue to provide after-sales services and support to all users.
The decision to close the store is surprising considering Shopee’s strong intentions for the Indian market. It was offering huge discounts on its market to compete with the existing giants.
Six months after entering the Indian market, Shopee was processing 100,000 orders per day and had over a million app installs on the Google Play Store. Ankit Upadhyay led the India business before joining Shopee Thailand as Head of Supply Chain Management in February 2020. He was tasked with increasing the company’s revenue by five to seven times in six months.
C said earlier this month that revenue growth in its e-commerce division would halve this year, from 157 percent in 2021, due to lower online transactions and engagements as more countries recover from the pandemic.
Shopee’s India operations began in October 2021, as part of an aggressive international expansion that saw the company expand into Europe. At the time, C had a market capitalization of up to $200 billion. Since then, it has fallen to $64.76 billion in March 2022.
Shopee India, the local entity, recruited local sellers and launched a shopping website and app. Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart’s Flipkart already control India’s fast-growing e-commerce market. India has been one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world.