Shopee Reportedly Shutting Down Operations in Some South American Markets

Shopee is reportedly shutting down local operations in a number of South American markets.

Credit: Reuters

Citing three sources close to the matter, Reuters claims the Sea-owned e-commerce platform is closing shop in Chile, Colombia and Mexico and leaving Argentina entirely. The company, however, plans to maintain cross-border operations in the first three markets. Despite this, the plan is supposedly to let go of the majority of its local teams, which could affect dozens of employees.

Brazil, where Shopee is doing relatively well, won't be affected, according to the report. Shopee recently opened five new distribution centres in the country to improve local shipping.

Shopee CEO Chris Feng explained to employees in an internal email that the company wanted to “focus resources on core operations" amid the current "elevated macro uncertainty". He also confirmed the cuts in Chile, Colombia and Mexico, along with the pullout from Argentina. Shopee later confirmed to Reuters that it'll indeed be focusing on a cross-border model in the first markets.

Credit: Shopee

Sea's shares haven't been enjoying the same highs as they did in the pandemic. The Singapore-based tech conglomerate is now worth around US$27 billion, down from more than US$200 billion late last year, when its gaming and e-commerce businesses became wildly popular among consumers. That steep decline has pushed the company to ramp up job cuts and shut down projects, among other efforts, this year to boost profitability.

Shopee similarly shut down operations in India and France in March 2022. Then, in June, the company cut jobs across its e-commerce and food delivery divisions, affecting both Southeast Asian and Latin American offices. The company also recently revoked job offers in Singapore, which inconvenienced a number of prospective employees, some of which come from different countries.

A separate source told Reuters that Sea executives have already given Shopee managers an internal directive to hit profit targets in Southeast Asia by 2023.

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• Shopee is reportedly shutting down operations in Chile, Colombia and Mexico and leaving Argentina entirely.

• The e-commerce company plans to maintain cross-border operations in the first three markets.

• Majority of the local teams from these markets will be let go, which could affect dozens of employees.

• Brazil, where Shopee is doing relatively well, won't be affected by the cuts.