Shopee exits French market after months of operations

The company behind Shopee SEA announced its retreat from France.This decision comes just a few months after its debut. The Shopee website and app closed its operations on 6 March, while still promising to complete all customers’ paid orders till then.

“Following a short-term, preliminary pilot, we have decided not to continue the Shopee service in France,” the company said in a statement, adding, “Other markets are unaffected. We continue to adopt an open-minded and disciplined approach to exploring new markets.”

France is known as one of the latest and significant European markets that Shopee entered.  Therefore, Bloomberg sees this move as a signal that Shopee might pull back its Europe expansion plans. 

However, this also means that Shopee could now focus more on its other European markets as well as its Latin American expansion. The Southeast Asian e-commerce and entertainment company has also tapped into Brazil, Chile and Colombia. 

In India, Shopee is facing regulatory and other local hurdles. India is known as one of Shopee’s new markets beyond Southeast Asia. Bloomberg reported that Shopee has lost more than $16 billion of its value in its biggest daily drop. It came after Delhi abruptly banned its most popular mobile gaming title Free Fire because of geopolitical challenges.