The e-commerce market in the Philippines has leaped from an “ignored island chain” to a “lucrative territory for making money”.

This island nation, which enjoys the demographic dividend of a young population, has witnessed rapid infrastructure development and has received green lights from policies all the way, is now witnessing a race in cross-border e-commerce. According to data from the PCMI E-commerce Database, in 2024, the scale of the e-commerce market in the Philippines soared to $28 billion, and it is expected to exceed the $40 billion mark by 2027. In the next five years, it will grow at an average annual compound growth rate of over 13%.

E-commerce platforms represented by TikTok Shop, Shopee, and Lazada are in fierce competition.

In 2024, the number of sellers on TikTok Shop in the Philippines surged by more than 120%. Shopee firmly holds the top position among Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms, and Lazada has also continuously increased its investment in the Philippines. Just like a merchant who sold 100 million yuan worth of “insulated cups” in the Philippines in a year, Chinese sellers are now facing unprecedented opportunities to make money.

Of course, opportunities and challenges coexist. Long-distance logistics, the need to establish trust in payments, and the need to accurately calculate compliance costs are still the difficulties in seizing this new e-commerce frontier.

The Philippines is undergoing an e-commerce transformation driven by the younger generation. The total population is approximately 117 million, among which 68% of the population is under 35 years old, that is, about 79 million young people. This group of young people who grew up with the Internet are heavy users of social media. They are an important consumer group in the e-commerce market, with a high acceptance of new things and a greater preference for online shopping.

According to the data in the “Global Digital Report 2024”, Filipinos spend 3 hours and 34 minutes a day on social media. They spend 1.36 hours a day on TikTok, which is approximately 1.5 times the time they spend on Facebook and far exceeds the time spent on daily social conversations.

Social media has deeply penetrated the lives of Filipinos and has become a key gateway for obtaining information, entertainment, and even making consumption decisions. The magic of short videos and the allure of live streaming rooms have sparked their interest in trendy products and personalized experiences. “Social e-commerce” has emerged in the Philippines and has quickly become a commercial wave that cannot be ignored.

According to data from Statista, the number of e-commerce users in the Philippines in 2024 was 14.28 million, with an annual growth rate of over 10%. The trends in fashion and beauty, as well as the iterative updates of electronic products, all capture the hearts of this group of young consumers.