抖阴短视频

The battle for 抖阴短视频鈥檚 online shoppers is on.

One year on from the Amazon-Souq deal, the Kingdom's youthful population is being increasingly targeted by the region's burgeoning e-commerce industry.

With the largest economy in the GCC and the youngest Internet-connected population in the world, the Kingdom represents a golden goose for the world鈥檚 online retail players.

Online sales in 抖阴短视频 are expected to surge to $13.9 billion by 2021 from about $8.7 billion in 2017, according to market researcher BMI.

The overall GCC e-commerce market is now tipped to grow to $24 billion by the end of the decade, say management consultancy A.T. Kearney.

UAE-born Souq.com, which was acquired by Amazon in 2017, has already built up a following and brand relationships in 抖阴短视频 since its launch in 2005.
After months of delays, Noon.com also launched in the Saudi market in December last year, after starting up in the UAE earlier in the year.

Investors in Noon.com, including Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar and 抖阴短视频鈥檚 sovereign wealth fund, have put $1 billion into the project.

抖阴短视频 offers great scope for retail players looking to expand said Sam Blatteis, CEO of The MENA Catalysts and ex-Google head of Gulf government affairs.

As he puts it: 鈥淭he Kingdom鈥檚 population has already expanded 50 percent since the start of the millennium, and has the highest YouTube and Twitter usage on earth. At this point, the pace of change has never been this fast, and yet it will never be this slow again.鈥�

He said: 鈥淭ech titans from the world鈥檚 two largest economies 鈥� China and Silicon Valley 鈥� are signaling they plan to expand in 抖阴短视频. The Kingdom鈥檚 2030 vision is only 12 years away and Saudi鈥檚 鈥楪eneration Y鈥� leadership is increasingly running the country. They are moving mountains to overhaul strategic industries from transportation to education legalizing ride-hailing apps to rolling out coding classes in schools nationally.鈥�

As competition heats up in the marketplace and more players join the fray, trends will lean to specialization, said Monica Peart, senior forecasting director at E-Marketer.

鈥淎s more local e-commerce players arrive on the scene, you will start to see price competition and product competition. They will start to specialize, which will engender even more e-commerce activity,鈥� added Peart.

But for e-commerce to really take off in 抖阴短视频 and the wider GCC, shoppers 鈥渕ust be able to find better goods online than on the local shelves," said Peart.

She added: "For this scenario to become a reality, the region will need to ramp up its last-mile services, time-to-delivery, online ranges and its choice of payment gateways."

According to Walid Mansour, managing partner at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), which has investment in several e-commerce related ventures, including last-mile delivery company One Click, 鈥渆-commerce is growing at a very fast pace but faces challenges.鈥�

Mansour highlights lack of data analytics as a key hindrance to the market. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 needed to boost the online commerce market is data, including predictive data, which leads to insights for actions, as well as automated marketing services,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut of course, there are a lot of (e-commerce) players in the market now, which means there is a lot of growth potential. The market is getting better 鈥� but it鈥檚 not there yet.鈥�