Shopee discontinues operations in Mexico, Chile, and Argentina

Shopee is shutting down its operations in three Latin American regions, and these are Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. It was reported that Sea Ltd. which owns the e-commerce platform revealed the closure through an announcement via email to its employees.

Sea Ltd told its workers on Thursday, Sept. 8, that it is pulling out of the said locations and it is completely shutting all operations. Sources who have direct knowledge of the matter further said that the tech conglomerate headquartered in Singapore will instead maintain cross-border operations in the first three markets but will terminate most of its teams in the mentioned countries.

As noted by Reuters, the move will affect many employees, and they are bound to lose their jobs. On the other hand, Shopee employees in Brazil are not affected because the shopping platform has become a dominant player there already which means it is successful in the territory.

It was learned that Chris Feng, Shopee’s chief executive officer, was the one who wrote and sent the mail to employees regarding the shutdown of its business in the four mentioned locations. He also confirmed in the email that they will only focus on certain regions from now on.

"In line with our previously stated focus on efficiency and profitability, we will concentrate on a cross-border model for our early stage operations in Shopee Mexico, Colombia and Chile, and close our pilot operations in Argentina,” Bloomberg quoted CEO Feng as saying in the email. “These changes are to ensure that our resources are focused on key business priorities. We are committed to supporting our local teams and seller communities through this transition."

He added that due to the current elevated macro uncertainty, Sea’s Shopee needs to direct its resources on its main operations. For this, they have “decided to focus on a cross-border model in Shopee Mexico, Colombia, and Chile.”

This is not the first time that Shopee withdrew its business as it was just a few months ago when it also closed down its operations in Spain, France, and India. It also terminated jobs in June and workers in its food delivery, and e-commerce units were affected. In any case, Shopee explained at that time that it is downsizing as the “new normal” has already started setting in after a really hectic time when the COVID-19 outbreak was at its peak.