Lazada Philippines guns for more m-commerce share

Eden Estopace
25 Feb 2015
00:00

Online shopping mall Lazada is cooking up a revolution. Today, a national holiday in the Philippines observed annually to commemorate the anniversary of a popular uprising, it is holding a one-day shopping event exclusive to mobile shoppers.

Inanc Balci, CEO of Lazada Philippines, believes that the timing is right for the mobile power sale. Mobile traffic, he said, now constitutes more than 50% of daily traffic of Lazada.com.ph. The Lazada Mobile App downloads have also grown 18% month-on-month on iOS and Android since its launch in early 2014.

This, he said, is being driven in large part by the increasing adoption of smartphones and mobile Internet in the country.

“The smartphone penetration is expected to hit 50% within 2015, which means tripling the number within the year, increasing 22% year-over-year in the last two years,” Balci said.

The country’s 16.7 million mobile internet users (in a population of over 100 million) is indeed a huge market and still has huge potential for growth.

While infrastructure remains a challenge in the country with often slow Internet connectivity, and expensive, limited bandwidth, local telecommunications companies are relentless in providing innovative mobile Internet solutions through mobile internet bundles and freebies.

“The mobile Internet access is increasing tremendously in the Philippines. Thanks to telco companies, they are making more investments and more people can access the internet. The mobile phone manufacturers - the local brands - are also coming up with new products that are making it easier for Filipinos to buy smartphones,” he said.

The availability of applications and the coming of music streaming services have also made it more appealing for digital consumers to increase their usage of their smartphones.

“Yes, people are buying smartphones but we want people to use their smartphones as well for various applications and to enable them to live easier lives,” Balci said.

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