Lazada starts up tech hub in Thailand

The Lazada Tech Hub in Thailand will focus on advancing the design and engineering of the e-commerce group’s mobile shopping and selling sites and apps for Southeast Asia. 

With almost 30 million app downloads and more than 60 per cent of its gross merchandise volume represented by mobile sales by the end of 2015, Lazada Group has been investing in m-commerce through new app and mobile site initiatives. 

“Mobile innovation is a discipline any serious online player must build, and having the best talent is critical to designing products and solutions that are not only intuitive but improve the quality of experience and life for our consumers and sellers,” said Ifor Evans, Lazada’s chief technology officer for operations. 

“We believe that Thailand attracts a highly skilled talent pool. And, as the leading shopping and selling destination, Lazada is both enviably positioned and committed to raising the bar for mobile and tech development in the region.” In the next few months, Lazada Tech Hub aims to hire more than 50 talents, including iOS and Android developers, Go Programming Language developers, and quality assurance automation engineers. The tech-hub team will operate from EmQuartier in Bangkok’s central business district. 

Lazada Group says it established an early presence in bringing high-value tech development to Southeast Asia when it opened its first tech hub in Ho Chi Minh City in November 2012. With Lazada’s rapid growth in the region, a second tech hub was opened in Moscow in February last year. Together, the Lazada-owned-and-operated tech hubs in Thailand, Vietnam and Russia are dedicated to driving world-class product engineering and technology infrastructure, placing Lazada at the forefront of technology innovation in Southeast Asia, the company says. 

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced last month it would pay US$1 billion (Bt35 billion) for a controlling stake in Lazada.