As a part of its attempts to rule the Southeast Asian market, Rocket Internet’s PricePanda has just launched its latest mobile version as per today. The decision of launching the app was rooted from a research data on the shopping preference of Southeast Asian customers collected by the company.

The data suggested that 375 million users who are spread in four main countries in the region (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines) have made the Southeast Asian market extremely tempting, especially when we talk about Indonesia.

According to the data, 56% of users in Indonesia and 46% of users in Malaysia shop online via their mobile devices, while Singapore (43%) and the Philippines (31%) come next on the list. It shows that the preference of users to shop online via their own mobile is quite significant.

From the data, it’s revealed that classic devices like desktop still become people’s favorite. The preference is seen particularly in Singapore and the Philippines. There, customers still prefer to use classic approach in shopping online via their desktop, with the percentage of 47% (Singapore) and 58% (the Philippines). Meanwhile, 44% of Indonesian users and 38% of Malaysian users still shop using this classic approach. Interestingly, less users prefer to shop using their tablet, with only 6% to 11% of them applying this method.

Given the fact, PricePanda has appointed two new leaders (Robin Steinhaus and Philip Wegener), refreshed their website, and opened the second office in Singapore to allow them expand further.

Thus, this mobile version was created to fulfill users’ need as well as adapt with new users’ shopping preference. It seems to be a right decision made by PricePanda, considering that Google has announced previously that they will rate websites that can adapt well with mobile using a new approach starting next couple of weeks. The company indeed labels websites that have modified their tools and content to be compatible with smartphone and other mobile devices as “mobile friendly” in the searching result.

In Indonesia, PricePanda, which has been there since 2012, has done numerous attempts to upgrade their services, including by launching the iOS and Android apps. The company sealed $3 million of funding earlier this year and claims that they have gathered 1 million users ever since, even though they got competed strictly by PriceArea, Telunjuk, and PriceBook for the market.

[Illustration: Shutterstock | PricePanda Blog]