Google, Shopee-owner Sea to develop AI tools for e-commerce, gaming

Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google and Southeast Asian technology conglomerate Sea Ltd SE.N announced a new tie-up on Thursday that will develop artificial intelligence tools for Sea's e-commerce and gaming products.

Under the newly-signed strategic partnership, the two companies will jointly "explore the building of an AI agentic shopping prototype" on Sea's e-commerce platform Shopee, they said in a statement.

The move is part of the efforts by global tech firms to monetise their AI models by promoting capabilities beyond simply answering questions and executing a much wider range of tasks from shopping on different apps to managing complex workflows.

China's Alibaba 9988.HK, whose Lazada e-commerce platform competes with Shopee in Southeast Asia, released a new AI model earlier this week that it described as being built "for the agentic AI era."

Shopee was the most dominant e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with a 52% market share in 2024, according to a report by consultancy Momentum Works.

Google and Sea's gaming unit Garena will also use AI solutions to "transform" the productivity of game development, both companies said.

The partnerships follow a 2024 tie-up between Shopee and Alphabet's YouTube in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market.

-Stanley Widianto/Reuters