Top Digital Platforms in APAC & Their Western Equivalent

Published on: July 29, 2022

There are dozens of online platforms that are widely used throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Just like in North America, these platforms allow consumers to connect with loved ones, purchase goods, film videos, share photos, pay for products and services, and much more.

20 top digital platforms in APAC to know:

Baidu

China’s leading online search engine, boasting over 66% market share.

Bilibili

Chinese user-generated video sharing platform with a highly engaged, interactive community. The platform sees roughly 300 million monthly active users.

Coupang

Korea’s 2nd largest e-commerce marketplace, known for its delivery speed. Customers that make a purchase before midnight are delivered by 7 am next day guaranteed.

Gmarket

Korea’s largest online marketplace with over 47 million active listings.

Douyin

Short form video app for China with livestreaming & e-commerce capabilities. It is owned by ByteDance and is one of the hottest apps in China, especially among gen-Z and millennial consumers.

Also known as “Jingdong”, JD.com is China’s 2nd largest online marketplace. While its user base skews male compared to Tmall’s female-leaning audience, it is still home to thousands of international brands and is known across China for its best-in-class domestic logistics network, ensuring that customers get their hands on their purchases as soon as possible.

KakaoStory

Korea’s mobile-contact-based microblogging platform with over 23 million active users.

KakaoTalk

A sister company to KakaoStory, KakaoTalk is South Korea’s leading messaging app with features such as mobile payment, shopping, banking, and microblogging.

Lazada

One of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in Southeast Asia with more than 50 million annual active users. Also owned by Alibaba, it is active in six different markets in Southeast Asia: Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

LINE

Japan’s most popular mobile app. Although it started as a messaging app, it now features microblogging, shopping, mobile payment, and more. It is also available in parts of Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Thailand) and has roughly 180 million monthly active users.

NAVER

Korea’s leading domestic search engine that draws heavily from user-generated content and social community café. Although Google still leads in Korea, Naver represents more than 25% of all searches in the market.

Rakuten Ichiba

The largest online marketplace in Japan with over US$43 billion in gross annual sales. 1 in 3 Japanese consumers is a registered Rakuten user.

Shopee

A chief competitor to Lazada, Shopee is the largest online shopping platform in Southeast Asia.

Tmall

China’s largest online retail marketplace with nearly 900 million active users. A subsidiary of Alibaba, Tmall acts as a virtual shopping mall and features brands from around the world across dozens of product categories, including fashion, beauty, health and wellness, consumer electronics, FMCG, child / baby / maternity, and more.