In 2025, Thailand emerged as Southeast Asia’s most dynamic e-commerce market, recording a 51.8% year-on-year surge in gross merchandise value (GMV) to reach $35.5 billion.
According to a report by Momentum Works, Thailand’s rapid growth and shift toward “content commerce” have positioned it as a critical battleground for major platforms, signaling a regional trend where growth leadership is moving away from mature markets like Indonesia toward high-growth, consolidated arenas.
Key Points
- Market Growth: Thailand’s e-commerce sector significantly outperformed regional peers in 2025, reaching $35.5 billion in GMV and establishing the country as the primary growth engine for Southeast Asia.
- Platform Consolidation: The Thai market is dominated by three major players—Shopee, TikTok Shop, and Lazada—which collectively control 98.8% of the total regional e-commerce GMV.
- Shifting Strategies: Shopee remains the market leader, TikTok Shop is rapidly expanding through content-driven engagement, and Lazada is pivoting toward a premium, brand-led strategy.
- Rise of Content Commerce: Livestreaming and short-form video have evolved into essential infrastructure for the Thai market, with social commerce adoption rates among the highest in the region.
- Regional Dynamics: Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market has entered a “control phase,” where platforms are prioritizing profitability and operational efficiency over geographic expansion.
- Indonesia vs. Thailand: While Indonesia remains the region’s largest market by total scale, its growth has slowed to 2.2%, shifting the focus of regional momentum toward faster-growing markets like Thailand and Malaysia.
What platforms control Thailand’s e-commerce market?
Thailand’s e-commerce market is currently controlled by a dominant trio of foreign platforms: Shopee, TikTok Shop, and Lazada. These three players collectively command 98.8% of the total gross merchandise value (GMV) in the Southeast Asian region, leaving very little room for local or niche marketplaces to scale.
Shopee maintains the leading position with over50% market share, while TikTok Shop is rapidly closing the gap through its content-driven “shoppertainment” model. Meanwhile, Lazada Thailand has pivoted toward a “confidence commerce” strategy, focusing on authentic brands and higher average order values to compete in the maturing 1.15-trillion-baht market.
How is Southeast Asia’s e-commerce growth shifting?
Southeast Asia’s e-commerce landscape is transitioning into a “control phase,” where major platforms prioritize profitability and operational efficiency over aggressive geographic expansion. This shift is characterized by heavy market consolidation, with the dominant trio of Shopee, TikTok Shop, and Lazada collectively commanding 98.8% of the region’s total gross merchandise value (GMV).
While Indonesia remains the largest market by scale, Thailand has emerged as the region’s growth engine, posting a 51.8% surge in 2025. This momentum is largely fueled by the rise of content commerce, such as livestreaming and short-form video, which has transformed from a marketing tool into essential core infrastructure for transactions.
To sustain growth amid high household debt, platforms are increasingly embedding digital lending and buy now, pay later solutions into the checkout process. Furthermore, the market is shifting toward agentic commerce, utilizing artificial intelligence to personalize the shopping experience and automate transactions through AI agents.
