Alibaba’s Taobao sees 60% user surge in Thailand after local launch

Taobao’s intensified focus on Thailand marks its latest effort to grow its presence across Asia

Taobao, China’s largest online shopping app owned by Alibaba Group Holding, is seeing rapid user growth in Thailand, as the platform expands its international presence in search of new growth opportunities.

Just over a month after the launch of a localised version of Taobao, the number of new Thai users on the platform surged 60 per cent year on year, recent data from Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC), the company’s overseas e-commerce division, showed.

The Thai version of Taobao adds to its existing Chinese and English versions, reflecting the company’s strategy to attract more users in the Southeast Asian country. The new iteration uses Alibaba’s AI translation capabilities, allowing users to browse the app in their local language and make payments in baht, according to AIDC.

Taobao’s intensified focus on Thailand marks its latest effort to grow its presence across Asia. Alibaba, owner of the Post, has accelerated its overseas expansion since last year, driven by slowing domestic demand and increased competition from newer rivals like PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo and ByteDance’s Douyin.

Thailand’s e-commerce market generated revenues of 1.1 trillion baht (US$34.1 billion) in 2024 – a 14 per cent increase from the previous year, according to data from Priceza, a Southeast Asian shopping search engine.

AIDC highlighted strong sales performance in Thailand during its midyear 618 shopping festival, with Taobao achieving a significant jump in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in key categories such as clothing, home furnishings, and consumer electronics. Notably, local GMV for women’s shoes doubled year on year, according to Zhao Jing, manager of Taobao Thailand.

Chinese platforms have introduced the 618 sales event to Southeast Asian markets following the success of Singles’ Day.

With a young population, Southeast Asia has emerged as one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets globally, reaching US$139 billion in GMV in 2023, according to a report released by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.

In September, Taobao launched its English version in Singapore and Malaysia, marking its first foray into non-Chinese languages. The English version has since become available in other markets.

Alibaba has been consolidating its e-commerce operations to enhance synergies across its various businesses. In November, the tech giant announced a major restructuring to merge its domestic and international e-commerce operations into a single unit, led by Jiang Fan, who previously oversaw the overseas operations.

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