Text 2 Tropical rain pounds on the roof of a cavernous warehouse near Jakarta,Indonesia's capital.Inside,youngsters in orange T-shirts haul around clothes,luggage and electrical goods for Lazada,an ecommerce finn,which has just moved in.The 12,000 square metre space is three times the size of the old one,but it already looks full.Three years ago Lazada's entire stock filled a storeroom the size of a studio flat,recalls Magnus Ekbom,its twenty-something boss in Indonesia.Internet shopping accounts for less than l%of all purchases in South-East Asia-a region twice as populous as America,where the proporlion is nearly 10%.But surging smartphone use and a broadening middle class mean the market is set to multiply:perhaps five fold by 2018,reckons Frost&Sullivan,a consulting firm.Since it launched in 2012 Lazada has laid claim to six South-East Asian countries,largely unchallenged by e-commerce giants such as Amazon of the United States,Alibaba of China and Rakuten of Japan.It may soon have to fight them for its tenitory.Lazada was created by Rocket Internet,a Berlin-based investor that helps out startups designed to dominate emerging markets.Rocket still holds a 24%stake,though Lazada has now raised more than$600m from inveslors including Tesco,a Bntish grocer,and Temasek,a Singaporean sover-eign-wealth fund.These deals appear to value it at about$1.3 billion,which could well make it South-East Asia's dearesl technology firm.Like other Rocket companies,Lazada is run by a group of young European emigranLs,plucked from finance and consuhing.It seems ready to stomach years oflosses.In the first half of 2014-Lhe only recent period for which results are available-it lost$50m before interest and tax,on revenues of$60m.Again like other Rocket comparues,its critics say it is just a copycat,in this case a mere clone of Amazon.Lazada's bosses say such charges underestimate the sophistication and ambition required to succeed in places such as Thailand,Indonesia,the Philippines and Vietnam.Online marketing is trickier there than in America or Europe,because locals use a much wider variety of search and social-media sites.The region's diversity means constant adjustment of online portals to suit local languages and cultures.It also means batding a hotch potch of customs rules.
According to Frost&Sullivan,online shopping market in Southeast Asia may_____
A.attract e-commerce giants
B.benefit the middle class
C.double in 8 few years
D.be greatly expanded