Shopee changes the game in Brazil's e-commerce sector

"I wouldn't be surprised," if they reached number one, said Li, "Given what they have done in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, Thailand."

Sea Ltd's Shopee took just two years to become Brazil's most-downloaded shopping app, winning users to its low-cost marketplace with its game-changing approach to e-commerce: in-app mini-games offering coupons to winning users.

The Singapore-based company has combined online shopping with the gaming nous of its separate mobile game arm Garena - creator of "Free Fire", Brazil's most-downloaded title for eight consecutive quarters - to generate sales analysts estimated at almost a third of local champion Magazine Luiza SA.