The cross-border e-commerce company has found a comfortable home in Indonesia, but has yet to find a place in the rest of a fragmented Southeast Asian market
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Key Takeaways:
- Woke Technology has filed to list in Hong Kong, boasting status as Indonesia’s top cross-border digital retail platform for computer and phone accessories
- With Alibaba affiliate Hangzhou Haoxing as an investor, and a valuation of $215 million, the e-commerce company’s IPO could raise more than $50 million
At a time when Chinese consumer-facing companies are racing to set up footholds in Southeast Asia, Shenzhen Woke Technology Co. Ltd. is way ahead of the game. Founder and Chairman Xu Longhua, a former executive from home electronics giant TCL, began building his business in Indonesia a decade ago in 2015, and has begun expanding in Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines more recently.
While the company looks quite comfortable in its niche, it also faces a number of challenges. Most notably, the market is becoming increasingly crowded with other players, including a growing number from China. And despite its efforts at regional diversification, Woke is still largely confined to Indonesia.
The company has an e-commerce pedigree in the form of Alibaba affiliate Hangzhou Huizhou as one of its major investors. Its most recent financing in 2024 valued it at 1.53 billion yuan ($220 million), meaning an IPO could raise roughly a quarter of that, or around 400 million yuan ($58 million).
The Southeast Asian retail market has huge growth potential, feeding off a rising middle class, rapid urbanization and high penetration of smartphones and digital payments. According to third-party research in Woke’s prospectus, the region’s retail market expanded 6.1% annually from $693.4 billion in 2020 to $879.9 billion in 2024. Indonesia represents the largest chunk of that, growing from $243.4 billion in 2020 to $313.3 billion in 2024.
Woke’s business segments are targeted at local populations whose buying habits are similar to China in the 1990s, when aspirational consumers had relatively little money but were willing to spend on items that made life more convenient. Its offline store partners sell not only to individual households but also small construction and renovation contractors.
Reflecting the importance of its offline network, online sales represented only 28.5% of Woke’s total in the first nine months of 2025, with sales to distributors accounting for nearly all the rest. But online sales have been growing fast, rising from 17.2% in 2023, fueled by growing use of digital payments and increasing mobile phone penetration.
Woke’s main product lines are 3C accessories, such as power banks and charging cables. It also sells small appliances like food choppers, ovens and air fryers, as well as home furnishings and building materials.
Rising revenue
3C accessories currently account for about two-thirds of Woke’s revenue, with small appliances and home furnishings each making up 10% to 15%. But small appliances are growing the fastest among Woke’s main product categories, with revenue leaping from 40 million yuan in 2023 to 116 million yuan in the first nine months of 2025, tripling from 4.4% of total revenue to 13.1% over that period.
The company’s fortunes are firmly tethered to Indonesia, which accounted for 94.1% of its sales in the first nine months of 2025. The remainder came from Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. Woke has clearly managed to diversify from its core business of 3C accessories, and is also quite diverse in its online versus offline business mix.
Despite its lack of geographic diversity, Indonesia is certainly a good choice if you have to choose just one country in Southeast Asia. The country is not only the most populous in the region, but also its largest economy.
Brands such as Midea and Supor already have a lead in Indonesia’s home appliance market, and leading smartphone maker Xiaomi has its own ecosystem in mobile accessories across the region. All of those, along with other Asian brands, will be formidable opponents as Woke explores the 3C accessories and small appliance markets beyond Indonesia.
There are also some niggling issues with Woke’s balance sheet, including net current liabilities that rose at a faster rate than its net current assets last year. The company is also curbing its R&D spending, which dropped from 2.3% of revenue in 2023 to 1.3% in the first nine months of 2025. Given the rapid embrace of the digital economy throughout Southeast Asia and heated competition, such cutbacks don’t necessarily look so prudent.
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Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
