Brand discovery happens on shopping platforms, Vase.ai’s Indonesia survey finds
Shopee ranked second behind TikTok as a place respondents first encountered brands, ahead of Instagram and YouTube.
Shopping platforms are also places where people discover brands, according to Vase.ai’s Indonesian consumer research. Shopee ranked second among the channels respondents named for first encountering new brands, putting the marketplace ahead of Instagram and YouTube.
In the Indonesia Media Consumption Report 2026, 53% of 200 respondents named Shopee as a brand-discovery channel. TikTok led at 62%, followed by Instagram at 45% and YouTube at 36%. Respondents could name several channels, so the percentages overlap.
Discovery before checkout
The finding places marketplaces earlier in the customer journey than the final purchase. For brands, it raises a practical question: do customers arrive already knowing what they want, or first encounter the brand while browsing the shopping platform?
Vase.ai recommends measuring where customers first discover a brand separately from where they eventually buy. That distinction can help brands examine the role of their marketplace presence alongside social and search channels.
Published on 15 October, the report used February 2026 fieldwork with adults aged 18–69 from Vase.ai’s respondent database. The panel was unweighted, with 74% living in Java, and is not nationally representative. The findings describe recalled behaviour, not a measured change in discovery over time or sales caused by a platform.
