Amazon already owns about 33% stake in Clicky.pk through its acquisition in 2017 of Dubai-based online retailer Souq. Souq acquired this stake in the Pakistani company in late 2016.
E-Commerce Market Growth:
Online sales in Pakistan's $152 billion retail market are growing much faster than the brick-and-mortar retail sales. Adam Dawood of Yayvo online portal estimates that e-tail sales are doubling every year. He expects them to pass $1 billion in the current fiscal year (2017-18), two years earlier than the previous forecast.
E-commerce in Pakistan is being enabled by increasing broadband penetration and new online payment options. Ant Financial, an Alibaba subsidiary, has just announced the purchase of 45% stake in Pakistan-based Telenor Microfinance Bank.
Payment Options:
Mobile wallets, also called m-wallets, are smartphone applications linked to bank accounts that allow users to make payments for transactions such as retail purchases. According to recent State Bank statistics on branchless banking (BB) sector, mobile wallets reached a high of 33 million as of September 2017, up 21% over the prior quarter. About 22 percent of these accounts – 7.4 million – are owned by women, up 29% seen in Jul-Sep 2017 over previous quarter. Share of active m-wallets has also seen significant growth from a low of 35% in June 2015 to 45% in September 2017.
Summary:
Online sales in Pakistan's $152 billion retail market are doubling every year, according to Adam Dawood of Yayvo online portal. The country's retail market is the fastest growing in the world, according to Euromonitor. Expanding middle class, particularly millennials with rising disposable incomes, is demanding branded and packaged consumer goods ranging from personal and baby care items to food and beverage products. Strong demand for fast moving consumer goods is drawing large new investments of hundreds of millions of dollars. Rapid growth in sales of consumer products and services is driving other sectors, including retail, e-commerce, paper and packaging, advertising, media, sports and entertainment. Potential downsides of soaring consumption include increased amount of solid waste and decline in domestic savings and investment rates.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Pakistan Retail Sales Growth
Advertising Revenue in Pakistan
Pakistan FMCG Market
The Other 99% of Pakistan Story
PSL Cricket League Revenue
E-Commerce in Pakistan
Fintech Revolution in Pakistan
Mobile Broadband Speed in Pakistan
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Pakistan’s booming e-commerce market is just getting started
Sarfaraz A. KhanUpdated March 26, 2018
https://www.dawn.com/news/1397446
Pakistan’s e-commerce market has witnessed phenomenal growth recently.
The number of registered e-commerce merchants has risen by 2.6-times and e-commerce payments have surged 2.3-times in a span of just twelve months, as per a State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) report. But this is still a young market with significant room for growth.
Pakistani businesses have embraced e-commerce. Hundreds of retailers, ranging from clothing outlets to electronic equipment stores, are now using websites to sell goods to customers.
The emergence of several online marketplaces, such as Daraz.pk and OLX Pakistan, has made it easier for retailers to sell goods on the web. At the same time, a number of new online businesses have also propped up.
As per the SBP’s Payment Systems Review (Q2FY18), there were a total of 344 e-commerce merchants in the country registered with banks at the end of 2016. By the end of 2017, that number had climbed to 905.
This growth was accompanied by a surge in e-commerce transactions from these merchants from Rs3.9 billion in the last three months of 2016 to Rs9.1bn in the last three months of the previous year. The central bank’s report also indicates that around 800 million payment transactions totalling Rs4.5bn were booked in the last three months of 2017. That’s also considerably greater than the Rs2bn e-commerce payments that happened in the same period of 2016.
The actual value of e-commerce sales, however, is likely several times larger than the above-mentioned numbers. That is because the central bank’s report only shows those transactions that occurred through debit or credit cards.
But Pakistani consumers mainly use the cash-on-delivery (COD) system to buy goods online. As per one estimate, almost 85 per cent of online sales occur through COD. Using this, we can speculate that roughly Rs25.5bn e-commerce payments may have occurred in the Oct-Dec period through the COD system.
It wasn’t long ago when the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority noted in its annual report for the previous fiscal year that the size of Pakistan’s e-commerce market could grow from $60m-$100m in 2015 to $1bn by 2020.However, industry experts now believe that the country could hit the key milestone by as soon as this year.
If the country continues to witness e-commerce sales of Rs30bn in every quarter from electronic card and COD system, just as it likely did in the last three months of 2017, then the total sales for the ongoing fiscal may clock in at Rs102bn, or $1.1bn at the current exchange rate. If however, Pakistan witnesses an increase in online sales, which could be driven by the Eid shopping season, then the market could go way past the $1 billion threshold in 2018.
At $1 billion, however, the size of Pakistan’s e-commerce market will still be tiny. Global e-commerce retail sales are expected to be around $2.8 trillion in 2018, as per data from Statista, a provider of market and consumer data.
China is the world’s largest e-commerce market where the online retail sales are forecasted to be around $600bn for 2018, followed by the US with $461.5bn of expected sales. India could report $25bn of retail e-commerce sales in the current year.
That being said, Pakistan is still a young e-commerce market where less than one-fifth of the total population uses the internet.
As per latest data from Internet Live Stats, the global internet penetration rate is around 46pc. In developed markets like the US, the metric is over 80pc. In Pakistan, however, a little less than 18pc of the population has access to the internet. That’s less than half of the global average, which means that there’s significant room for growth although internet penetration in the country has already grown significantly from just 8pc in 2010.
Pakistan now has 53 million 3G and 4G subscribers, PTA
https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistan-now-has-53-million-3g-and-4g-subscribers-pta/
The number of internet users in Pakistan is rising fastly. According to report by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the number of 3G and 4G customers in Pakistan reach 53.24 Million by the end of March 2018. PTA observed the number of mobile users in Pakistan reached 149.10 million by March 2018 as compared to 147.204 million at the end of February 2018.
If you look at the individual mobile network count then Jazz is a top-notch telecom operator and its total count for 3G users stood at 14.98 million by March, compared to 14.88 million by end of February 2018, marking an increase of 0.1 million. Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 2,590,092 by end February 2018 to 3,155,686 by 31 March.
Zong 3G subscribers elevated from 8.893 million by 28 February 2018 to 9.187 million by 31 March, whereas the variety of 4G customers jumped from 5,830,231 by February 2018 to 6,373,061 by 31st March.
The count of 3G customers of Telenor community jumped from 10.878 million by the end of February 2018 to 10.928 million by the end of March 2018. The number of 4G customers jumped from 2,154,238 by February 2018 to 2,451,057 by end-March.
Ufone added 0.147 million 3G users on its network during the month of March and the total count reached to 6.165 million by end-March compared to 6.018 by end of February 2018.
Teledensity for cellular mobiles reached 74.98 % and broadband subscribers reached 55,558,824 by the end of March in comparison with 53,554,231 by the end of February 2018.
The telecom sector of Pakistan has undergone through huge transformations after the arrival of 3G and 4G services in the country. However, the Pakistani government is going to introduce 5G technology as well that will be at least 100 times faster than the speed of 4G technology. The government has finally allowed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to let telcos conduct 5G trials in Pakistan.
#Alibaba buys Rocket Internet's #Pakistan #ecommerce platform Daraz.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rocket-internet-divestiture-alibaba/alibaba-buys-rocket-internets-pakistan-ecommerce-platform-daraz-idUSKBN1I90N0
Alibaba Group (BABA.N) has bought the entire share capital of Rocket Internet’s (RKET.DE) South Asian ecommerce platform Daraz Group, Rocket Internet said on Tuesday.
Daraz, founded in Pakistan in 2012, operates online marketplaces in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The unit will continue to operate under the same brand following the sale to Alibaba, Rocket said.
#Alibaba's entry in #Pakistan hailed as boost for #DigitalEconomy. Experts predict #Islamabad likely to lower high taxes after #Chinese e-retailer's investment. #ecommerce #fintech #Daraz #AliPay #Telenor #Telecom #payments
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Alibaba-s-entry-in-Pakistan-hailed-as-boost-for-digital-economy
KARACHI -- Alibaba Group Holding's recent purchase of a Pakistan-based online retailer has positioned the Chinese technology conglomerate to make inroads in e-commerce across South Asia, but the acquisition has raised expectations of robust growth in an industry that many experts say performs well below its potential.
Gaps such as the absence of a global online payments system can now be filled through Alibaba's Alipay service, said Shuja Rizvi, a Karachi based senior stock market analyst at Al-Hoqani Securities. "With the entry of a major player like Alibaba, Pakistan's policies will be molded to face global competition and our environment will hopefully improve," Rizvi said in an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, citing one of the most commonly discussed benefits of Alibaba's arrival in the country.
Alibaba announced earlier this month a deal to buy Daraz Group, a Pakistani digital marketplace company, for an undisclosed amount. Since it was founded in 2012, Daraz has steadily expanded its services to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, say analysts who regularly track the e-commerce sector.
The acquisition comes as Pakistan prepares to receive more than $60 billion in Chinese investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor -- a cornerstone of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative. Alibaba's arrival in Pakistan also has been preceded by significant growth in cellular phone services and high-speed internet across the country in recent years, analysts say.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or PTA, the official regulator of the telecom sector, more than 73% of Pakistan's population, or roughly 149 million people, have cellular phone subscriptions. Especially important for the growth of digital businesses is the estimate of 56 million people, or more than 27% of the population, who subscribe to broadband services -- a key figure indicating the number of internet users, many of whom will be potential future online customers.
"Today, the number of internet users in Pakistan are more than the entire population of many countries around the world," a senior official with the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication in Islamabad who requested anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to journalists, told Nikkei. "For investors like Alibaba, there is fertile ground for a strong future expansion."
Other PTA officials said that online retail businesses in Pakistan have much room to grow as they have an advantage over traditional retail outlets that have to invest heavily in commercial real estate to sell their products to consumers.
"In the most prized commercial markets of Pakistan -- in big cities like Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad -- rents have more than doubled for the top-end premises just in the last 10 years," said the Ministry of Information Technology official. "And the overhead costs -- especially rents -- continue to rise."
Barkan Saeed, chairman of the Pakistan Software Houses Association, the main representative body of the country's software industry, welcomed Alibaba's purchase of Daraz and entry into the country "as a major milestone" for Pakistan's e-commerce sector. Saeed said that while the government estimates the annual value of e-commerce transactions in Pakistan at approximately $600million, the actual figure could be five times that amount.
#Technology firms Avanza Group & Premier Systems announce investment of $5 million in the #payment #gateway to connect individuals with merchants and banks via joint venture as Avanza Premier Payment Services (APPS) in #Pakistan #mobilepayments #ecommerce https://www.techjuice.pk/two-technology-firms-to-establish-online-payment-gateway-in-pakistan/
Two technology groups in Pakistan have collaborated to develop a local online payment gateway system to take a share in the growing e-commerce market of Pakistan.
Avanza Group and Premier Systems announced to invest over $5 million in the gateway which is aimed to connect individuals with merchants and banks. According to sources, the two companies will set up the joint venture as Avanza Premier Payment Services (APPS).
Mahmood Kapurwala, CEO of Avanza Group said, “the size of Pakistan’s e-commerce market is estimated to be $1 billion, which should be $30-$40 billion in a country with a population of 207 million.’ He also partnered with NCR, Avaya, Microsoft, and IBM. He added, “We are looking at this gap as an opportunity.”
APPS claims to be the first Financial Technology (fintech) in the country to obtain payment system provider (PSP) and payment system operator (PSO) licenses from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). According to McKinsey and Company, a worldwide management consulting firm, Fintech will add about 4 million jobs, 93 million bank accounts and $36 billion annually to the gross national product (GNP), and $7 billion to the government’s net revenue by 2025.
The newly-founded company plans to incentivize brick and mortar businesses with free online services, like building websites and digital marketing. It will only take a certain share in the profit that comes through online businesses. Adnan Ali, CEO, APPS said: “It will move Pakistan towards digitizing major institutions, such as merchants, schools, billing industries, mutual funds and other corporate entities by providing a digital gateway.”
Avanza Group CEO said, Increase in e-commerce acceptance will also help grow the overall retail market when people will have the choice to buy products present in other cities, He said, “If everything remains on track, earning a revenue of Rs400 million will not be a big deal.”
#Alibaba's #Alipay's entry to tap great potential of #Pakistan #ecommerce market. US$184 million investment to expedite mass adoption of digital #payments in Pakistan. #Internet penetration rising with estimated 60 million subscribers of 3G and 4G. https://on.china.cn/2EO9fAc
Alipay, a subsidiary of Hangzhou-based Ant Financial, has been cleared by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to acquire a 45 percent stake in Pakistan's Telenor Microfinance Bank.
The investment of over US$184 million will expedite widespread adoption of digital payments in Pakistan. With internet penetration continuously on the rise, there are an estimated 60 million subscribers of 3G and 4G in the country that can become potential users of the service.
Several mobile payment services are presently operating in Pakistan. Primarily, these have been offered by telecom operators with a large number of cellular subscribers. However, limited international application has kept the penetration rate of the payment portals relatively low. Entry of Alipay, the world's largest mobile payment platform, will intensify competition higher, improve the quality of service and reinvigorate the entire landscape of the industry.
Pakistan's growing young population makes it suitable for embracing cashless payments on a large scale. People under the age of 30 form 64 percent of the population who are always the most likely to take up any new technology. On top of that, high cellular phone use will be a facilitative factor, since the mobile-first strategy for internet-based businesses is very valid in Pakistan.
Commencement of Alipay's operations in Pakistan will also provide a major push to e-commerce. eBay CEO Devin Wenig recently identified emerging economies like Pakistan as the fastest growing e-commerce hubs of the world. The trend is spreading like wildfire across the country with new online shops emerging constantly. A reliable e-payment gateway with worldwide collaborators is all that Pakistanis need to streamline their online transactions.
Alibaba had already acquired Pakistan's leading e-commerce platform Daraz. Utilizing the reach of Alibaba, Pakistani sellers will now be able to connect with global buyer.
The digital payment boom will be most beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises that form the backbone of the national economy. Many of these businesses face difficulties in financial transactions due to being located in rural areas. Alipay might prefer to focus on them as the Pakistani government wants to reduce their business costs and difficulties.
Across the border in China, a new policy is on the cards to increase e-commerce purchases from overseas. Around 63 additional categories are being added to a product list of what can be imported duty-free through online platforms. Moreover, 22 cities, such as Beijing, Nanjing and Shenyang, are also being included in e-commerce pilot zones.
With several food items in the revised e-commerce import list, there is much potential for Pakistani farm produce. Fruits like mango and the mandarin hybrid kinnow can gain extended reach in the Chinese food market and the recent push to increase meat and poultry production could further boost Pakistan's exports.
The targeted online shoppers in China are increasingly focusing on foreign brands. Large businesses and premium brands from Pakistan can reach out to these buyers through Tmall Global – another Alibaba operated e-commerce platform allowing Chinese consumers to purchase products from abroad. Pakistan's small to medium businesses might not have the logistic prerequisites for this platform, but international-standard large companies certainly can.
Ant Financial is coming to Pakistan at a time when trade between Pakistan and China is touching new heights through the flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) known as China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
#India’s #ecommerce crackdown upends big foreign players.
#Amazon, #Flipkart have till end of Jan to comply with new restrictions, that sharply restrict the use of their hefty balance sheets to boost sales on their websites. #FDI https://www.ft.com/content/6dd8188a-14c2-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e via @financialtimes
Saifuddin Bhanpurawala is one of dozens of shopkeepers on a dusty Mumbai back street that bustles with customers buying everything from tobacco to perfume.
But Mr Bhanpurawala’s mobile phone shop is going through hard times, selling as few as two handsets in a bad week. He says the reason is obvious: the huge discounts available online at Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, the two biggest players in India’s fast-growing ecommerce sector.
“If we sell something at Rs5,000 [$70], they might sell it at Rs2,500 — we don’t understand how it’s possible,” said Mr Bhanpurawala, 28. He argued that the Indian government’s tolerance of such practices has demonstrated its lack of concern for small businesses: “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”
With a general election just four months away, prime minister Narendra Modi is moving to address such complaints. Amazon and Flipkart have been given until the end of this month to comply with new restrictions, announced in late December, that sharply restrict the use of their hefty balance sheets to boost sales on their virtual marketplaces.
But while the move is intended to strengthen the government’s credentials among India’s millions of small retailers, it has sparked alarm for two of the country’s biggest outside investors. Walmart’s $16bn buyout of Flipkart last year was the biggest foreign direct investment in Indian history, while Amazon has committed $5bn in capital to its Indian operation.
“A sudden change in rules is not helpful,” said Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, which works to build economic ties between the countries. “It sends a message to groups that the environment is not transparent.”
‘Behave like a marketplace’
When India opened its economy to foreign capital in the 1990s, it was careful to maintain protection for small retailers. Foreign investment was allowed in single-brand but not multi-brand retail — allowing clothing labels, for example, to open stores but keeping out the foreign supermarket chains that were feared by many shopkeepers.
As ecommerce took off, New Delhi updated these rules for the internet age. Foreign-backed companies would be allowed to run virtual “marketplaces” — platforms enabling independent sellers to connect with customers. But they were barred from selling goods themselves, stopping them from functioning as online supermarkets.
The vague wording of the rules, however, meant that Amazon and Flipkart — backed with billions in capital from foreign investors led by US fund Tiger Global — quickly found ways to use their balance sheets to turbo-charge growth, outraging peers in the industry.
“We were flabbergasted all the while at the blatant violations of the FDI policy,” said Sanjay Sethi, chief executive of ShopClues, one of the largest rivals to the dominant duo. “We started doubting ourselves — are we not interpreting these rules correctly?”
Flipkart pursued a different tack. Instead of forming directly controlled sellers, it supplied many of them through a huge wholesale distributor, named Flipkart India. The distributor’s revenue has far outstripped that of the online marketplace entity, while incurring heavy losses.
In the last financial year, Flipkart India made a net loss of $293m on sales of $3bn. That dwarfed the revenue of Flipkart Internet, the marketplace business, which booked sales of $398m, mostly on commissions charged to sellers.
From 2016, Amazon also dramatically increased the scale of its wholesale operation. In the last financial year, that business had revenue of $1.7bn, up from $458,000 two years before.
#China approves PayPal's (PYPL) acquisition of a 70% equity interest in #Chinese GoPay. It will not be an easy market to break into. #Chinese #digital #payments services #Alibaba (BABA)'s #AliPay & #Tencent (TCEHY)'s WeChat Pay have dominated that market https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/30/tech/paypal-gopay-china-payments/index.html
As western companies jockey for a way into China's enormous digital payments business, PayPal has clinched a license to provide digital payment services in China, following its acquisition of a majority stake in a Chinese payments company.
China's central bank has approved PayPal's (PYPL) acquisition of a 70% equity interest in GoPay, the companies announced Monday. PayPal says this makes it the first foreign firm licensed to provide digital payment services in China.
The terms of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of 2019, have not been disclosed, a PayPal spokesperson said. GoPay is a small Chinese payments provider that functions similarly to PayPal — it allows merchants to accept non-credit card payments straight from their websites.
American payment and credit card companies have for years been trying to break into the world's second largest economy, where the growing middle class means a growing market of consumers seeking lending, credit card and money transfer services. In recent years, the Chinese government has opened the door to foreign firms to start applying for licenses to launch payments networks in the country, but the approval process has been slow-going. By taking on majority ownership of GoPay, PayPal acquired access to the Chinese firm's license to provide online payment services.
"We look forward to partnering with China's financial institutions and technology platforms, providing a more comprehensive set of payment solutions to businesses and consumers, both in China and globally," PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement on LinkedIn.
The deal opens the door for PayPal to process digital transactions in China — which are estimated to total in the trillions. But it may not be an easy market to break into. Chinese digital payments services Alibaba (BABA)'s AliPay and Tencent (TCEHY)'s WeChat Pay have dominated that market, in part by making it easy for merchants to use their services and accept payments from mobile phones rather than setting up the infrastructure to accept credit card payments. As of last year, more than 8 million brick-and-mortar stores in China accepted AliPay.
The licensing requirements have made it difficult for American companies to operate in the country, while benefiting Chinese companies.
Only one other American company has successfully made inroads in the market. Last year, American Express received preliminary approval from the People's Bank of China to start building out a domestic clearance and settlement network through its joint venture with Chinese partner LianLian group.
In every other market in the world, American Express processes transactions through its own, Arizona-based network. But in China, it's had to rely on the state-controlled payments giant China Union Pay to process transactions. The preliminary approval it received last year will allow it to build out its own network to process payments on AmEx branded cards.
Mastercard and Visa have also tried to offer such services in China.
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