Shopee announced that, starting December 11, it will raise the commission on its free-shipping program from 6% to 6.5%, while transaction fees will be adjusted by product category. Sellers calculate that total fees on a single order could approach 20%. Sea Limited, Shopee’s parent company, reported in its third-quarter earnings that Shopee’s transaction-fee and advertising revenue grew 50.6% year over year—more than twice the rate of growth in gross merchandise value. Why is Shopee confident enough to raise its fees, and how can sellers work out what they’ll pay? Here’s a breakdown of each part. (Previously: JKOPay dropped by major online retailers: momo Shopping, PChome, Eslite, and more...) (Background: ChatGPT follows Google in launching business profiles: businesses can claim listings and see how often they’re mentioned; applications are also open in Taiwan.) Key points: Starting December 11, Shopee’s free-shipping program commission rises from 6% to 6.5%. Shopee’s third-quarter transaction-fee and advertising revenue grew 50.6% year over year. For orders over NT$1,000, the NT$65-per-order plan costs less. At noon on November 13, a user posted a breakdown of their shop’s fees on PTT’s Gossiping board. The list included an 8% transaction fee, a 6.5% free-shipping service fee, a 4% promotional surcharge, a 3% pre-order surcharge, and another 2.5% fee with no name given. Added together, starting December 11, an ordinary in-stock order would be charged 17%, while a pre-order during a campaign could incur fees of up to 24%. The user calculated that the previous total ranged from 14.5% to 19.5%. By their calculation, the platform is taking an additional 2.5 to 4.5 percentage points from the same order, with the maximum commission approaching 20%—a striking amount. The figures they calculated were based on the new rates Shopee Shopping posted that same day. An announcement in the Seller Help Center said that under the “Free Shipping and Advanced Seller Program,” Plan 1 would rise from 6% to 6.5% of the order amount, while Plan 2 would increase from NT$60 to NT$65 per order. The announcement said transaction fees would be adjusted by product category, with average increases of 2% for general sellers. Common rates are 8% or 8.5%. Shopee said the adjustments are intended to maintain service quality, staffing and operations, and continued investment in promotions. Sellers on Threads have done their own detailed calculations. The basic per-order fee plus the free-shipping plan already exceeds 12%; add a 4% campaign surcharge, and the total taken from an order “comes close to 20%.” One seller said, “Shopee is almost making more money from the commissions than I am,” while another joked, “We sellers have all turned into Shopee’s employees.” Shopee responded that the changes vary by product category, with fees decreasing for some categories, and that it will continue collecting seller feedback and improving its platform services. Sellers are doing the math—and Shopee is even better at it. Transaction volume up 23%, platform revenue up 51%. Shopee’s parent company is Singapore-based Sea Limited. According to Sea’s third-quarter 2026 earnings report, released on November 10, Shopee processed 4.5 billion orders during the quarter, up 25.5% year over year, and recorded GMV of US$39.7 billion, up 23.3%. In the same quarter, “core marketplace revenue,” primarily made up of transaction fees and advertising, reached US$4.6 billion, up 50.6% year over year. Sellers sold more than 20% more goods, while the platform collected 50% more from them. Using the earnings figures, BlockTempo calculated that for every US$100 in transactions Shopee handled, it collected about US$9.50 in transaction fees and advertising revenue a year ago, compared with about US$11.60 this quarter. In its earnings report, Sea attributed Shopee’s revenue growth to two factors: GMV growth and “improved monetization.” Sea Chairman and CEO Forrest Li said Shopee’s strategy was bringing in more buyers and strengthening monetization, while unit economics were also improving. Shopee’s adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was US$269.2 million, up 44.7% year over year. Li said revenue and profit metrics hit new highs this quarter. Revenue from value-added services, primarily logistics, was US$724.4 million this quarter, compared with US$723.6 million in the same period last year—virtually unchanged. Almost all marketplace revenue growth came from transaction fees and advertising. Sea does not disclose Taiwan figures separately; these numbers combine Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Brazil. In its press release, Sea described Shopee as “the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.” Traffic down 10%, but still 1.8 times momo’s. Competition in Taiwan is no easy ride. Statistics released in August by the Institute for the Future of Commerce showed that Shopee averaged 50.87 million monthly visits in the first half of 2026, down 9.7% year over year. During the same period, momo was up 2.3%, while Coupang Taiwan surged 107.7% to 9.59 million visits, overtaking Books.com.tw to become the fourth-largest e-commerce platform by traffic. Even with traffic down nearly 10%, Shopee still had 1.8 times momo’s traffic. That means second-place momo had just over half of Shopee’s traffic. For a small seller looking for the place where the most buyers shop, the answer is still Shopee. The same goes for pickup locations. When Shopee launched same-day delivery in August 2025, more than 2,000 Shopee Store-to-Store locations supported the service. In November 2025, Shopee announced it would end its logistics service with OK Mart starting January 1, 2026. OK Mart said at the time that around 798 of its stores offered parcel drop-off and pickup. Shopee Store-to-Store has 2.5 times as many locations as OK Mart. Buyers are also becoming more closely tied to the platform. In January 2026, Shopee launched “Free Shipping Across the Platform” and introduced “Shopee VIP,” a subscription service costing NT$59 a month. Shopee cited internal data saying that more than 70% of users believe free shipping directly affects their willingness to buy. Buyers stay on Shopee for free shipping, and sellers stay on Shopee for the buyers. The fee trajectory is clear, too. In 2025, the program fee was still 7%. In January 2026, Shopee launched “Free Shipping Across the Platform,” automatically enrolling all sellers in the “Free Shipping and Advanced Seller Program” and lowering the fee from 7% to 6%. At the time, Shopee said sellers who joined the free-shipping program saw an average increase of nearly 40% in completed orders. Eleven months after the new rate took effect, the fee for the same program is rising to 6.5%. This time, all sellers enrolled in the program since 2026 are affected. This isn’t Shopee’s first adjustment to seller fees. Starting in February 2024, sellers who did not participate in free-shipping subsidies or Shopee Coins rewards were charged a 7.5% transaction fee during promotional campaigns. Combined with a 2% payment-processing fee, the maximum charge per item was 9.5%. The figures show that buyers and pickup locations are concentrated on Shopee. For sellers to leave, they first need to find somewhere else that can handle all those orders. NT$1,000 is the break-even point between Plan 1 and Plan 2. The first thing sellers can do is choose a different free-shipping plan. Plan 1 charges 6.5% of the order amount, while Plan 2 charges a flat NT$65 per order. The two plans cost the same at NT$1,000. On a NT$500 order, Plan 1 costs NT$32.50, while Plan 2 costs NT$65. On a NT$2,000 order, Plan 1 costs NT$130, while Plan 2 still costs NT$65. Orders under NT$99 are all charged 6.5%. Sellers of small items costing a few dozen dollars or less don’t have a choice on this one. Where does your shop’s average order value fall in relation to NT$1,000? Shopee’s announcement says that after an application is approved, it is expected to take three days... This article, “Why Is Shopee Confident Enough to Raise Its Fees? Seller Commissions Near 20%—Which Platform Should They Switch To?”, was first published on BlockTempo (the most influential blockchain news outlet).