Tag: mobile commerce asia

Masaya Ueno, the director of Rakuten Asia has released a promising prediction for 2015 trends.

Rakuten, the massive e-commerce giant from Japan, has now released an official statement that has revealed that it has brought in $1.1 billion worth of revenue in Singapore via mobile commerce channels.

The company therefore feels that the Singapore market is a tremendously promising one for next year.

The director of Rakuten Asia, Masaya Ueno, who is also the company’s Country Manager for Singapore and the Head of the Business Development Division, explained that the country’s tremendous 80 percent adoption rate of smartphones has made it ready for a great deal more growth in mobile commerce. Smartphone shopping is already quite common in the country but the company feels that there remains a great deal more room for growth to continue throughout 2015.

The larger smartphones, nicknamed “phablets” are being called a driving force behind this mobile commerce trend.

According to Masaya Ueno, “Apple’s entry into the Phablet market with the iPhone 6 Plus and the launch of other phablets flagships like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will help to drive the adoption of mobile shopping is Singapore as well.”

At the same time, Rakuten’s forecast also explained that the focus on ‘mobile-first’ is also spreading throughout the Asian Pacific region, where many consumers use their smartphones as their exclusive method of accessing the internet. The prediction underscored the fact that this will be an important m-commerce factor in 2015, as it shows that the trend in mobile shopping will not be exclusive to Singapore, but will also have considerable potential in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Rakuten explained that this mobile technology trend should be telling retailers that they simply cannot think that they can continue to ignore this fast moving segment of m-commerce, as consumers throughout that region turn away from their desktops in favor of their smaller screen handsets.

The Rakuten prediction is that far more retailers will rapidly begin an investment into mobile commerce in both the marketing and retail efforts, and that this will be easily seen in all of 2015.

ShopSpot mobile commerce platform wins more funding

ShopSpot, a mobile commerce startup based in Thailand, has announced that it has raised $630,000 in investments, much of which came from Jungle Ventures and SingTel Innov8. The company’s mobile commerce application of the same name is designed to be easy to use in order to be universally accommodating to consumers of all kinds. ShopSpot notes that ease-of-use is one of the most important aspects of mobile commerce that is often overlooked by many of the larger companies that are involved in the mobile market.

Application offers several innovative features to consumers

The mobile commerce application does not only allow consumers to purchase products using their mobile device; it also allows them to shop for products that they are interested in. The application can use location-based information to help consumers find products in an efficient manner. It also enables consumers to communicate directly with a retailer, though retailers are unlikely to participate in this communication due the lack of staff committed to chatting with individual consumers.

Monetization absent from ShopSpot

Notably, the application does not have its own monetization model in place. ShopSpot does not impose any fees on transactions made through the application and does not offer advertising services to companies. This may be due to a trend that has emerged in the Asian market wherein many consumers will avoid applications that charge them for services. As such, many mobile commerce applications that have been launched in Asia have seen modest success as the majority of these applications charge consumers for every transaction they make.

Investments keeps ShopSpot afloat

Investments will help keep ShopSpot going for the foreseeable future, but the company may have to introduce some kind of monetization system eventually. Whether consumers will be willing to embrace the application after such a system is in place is difficult to know for sure. For now, the application helps fill a gap that has existed in Thailand burgeoning mobile commerce market, making it well received among many consumers.