The Southeast Asia Opportunity: Why Indonesia and Vietnam Are Chinese Hygiene Brands' Next Big Markets

Introduction#

Chinese hygiene brands look at Southeast Asia as a near-term market, because online disposable hygiene sales in Vietnam grew 70.2% YoY in January–July 2025 and sales in Indonesia, the region's largest market, grew 34.4%. In January–July 2025, online disposable hygiene sales on leading marketplaces in Southeast Asia reached CN¥ 3.58 billion, and measured by Chinese brands' overseas sales, the region overtook Europe to become China's second-largest overseas hygiene market after North America. The infrastructure needed to serve these markets, including warehouses, logistics networks and marketplace relationships, has developed far enough to support brand entry, and we believe the advantage available to early movers will narrow over time.

China's overseas disposable hygiene sales reached CN¥ 13.13 billion in January–August 2025, growing 34.4% YoY, which is more than three times the domestic market's +10.7% growth rate. North America remains the largest overseas market at CN¥ 5.73 billion (+35.2% YoY), while Southeast Asia reached CN¥ 4.13 billion (+35.3% YoY), and we believe the strategic case for the region rests as much on where volume growth will come from over the next decade as on its current scale.

Why Southeast Asia: Demographics, Economics and E-commerce#

Three conditions lie behind the expansion of Southeast Asia's hygiene market. Young populations create long-run category demand, rising incomes widen the consumer base for mid-range and premium products, and e-commerce infrastructure is developing quickly enough to make brand entry efficient.

Indonesia has a population of about 286 million and Vietnam about 102 million, according to World Bank estimates for 2025, and with median ages of about 30.4 and 33.4 years in the UN World Population Prospects 2024, both markets have decades of baby diaper and feminine hygiene demand ahead of them. Vietnam's incomes are also rising quickly, with real GDP per head growing faster than in most of its neighbours in recent years, and we believe this will widen the consumer base for mid-range and premium hygiene products there over the next five years.

On the e-commerce side, Indonesia is the largest online disposable hygiene market in the region in our data, which makes it an immediate priority for brands seeking volume. Vietnam's online sales are growing fastest, and together with its rising incomes this makes it, in our view, the market with the highest medium-term potential, since category and brand positions there are not yet entrenched.

The Philippines is often overlooked in favour of Indonesia and Vietnam, although it has about 117 million people according to the World Bank and a median age of about 26.1 years, which the UN World Population Prospects 2024 puts among the youngest in Southeast Asia, where only Timor-Leste and Laos have a lower median age. Its online hygiene sales reached CN¥ 617 million in January–July 2025 (+35.0% YoY), and we believe it is positioned to become the third major expansion market in the region once brands have built their infrastructure in Indonesia and Vietnam.

The Logistics Infrastructure Has Matured#

For several years the structural argument for Southeast Asia was sound while logistics constrained execution, because cross-border e-commerce into Indonesia and Vietnam meant longer delivery times and higher fulfilment costs than locally stocked products from established multinationals such as Unicharm (尤妮佳), Kimberly-Clark (金佰利) and Procter and Gamble.

That constraint has been largely resolved. Between 2020 and 2022 the number of overseas warehouses in Southeast Asia tripled from 43 to 136, an increase of 216%, while average warehouse floor area expanded from 3,931 sq m to 7,377 sq m. Disposable hygiene products are high-volume, lower-margin categories that are particularly sensitive to fulfilment cost and delivery time, so this build-out directly improves the position of cross-border brands against locally stocked ones.

The investments of established hygiene companies confirm the importance of the market. Unicharm acquired DSG International (Thailand) in 2018 to build its Southeast Asian business, Kimberly-Clark completed its acquisition of Softex Indonesia in 2020, and Vinda (维达) opened a Southeast Asian regional hub in Malaysia in 2022. When three global hygiene companies make significant capital commitments to a region within a five-year window, it confirms the opportunity and also raises the competitive stakes for brands that enter later.

Indonesia: The Largest Market in the Region#

Indonesia's online disposable hygiene market reached CN¥ 860 million in January–July 2025, up 34.4% YoY. Baby diapers account for most of it at CN¥ 690 million (+28.9% YoY), while adult diapers grew faster to CN¥ 120 million (+57.3% YoY) and feminine hygiene pads reached CN¥ 53.22 million (+72.0% YoY).

Indonesia's baby diaper market shows both the challenge and the opportunity for Chinese brands. International incumbents such as Unicharm's Mamypoko, Kimberly-Clark's Sweety and Kao's Merries are well established there, and the Chinese brand MAKUKU (萌可) has built a position in this market through a deliberately differentiated strategy.

MAKUKU's product range spans four distinct series aimed at different consumer profiles, Comfort Fit, Dry Care, Slim Care and Procare, and its pricing competes with the established brands while it offers more product differentiation than brands that compete on price alone. Its marketing, through official brand accounts on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, is aimed at Indonesia's young parents in the formats they use, and we believe it shows that the Chinese brand approach to Southeast Asia can work.

Vietnam: The Highest-Momentum Market in the Region#

Vietnam's growth of 70.2% YoY makes it the highest-momentum market in Southeast Asia, and the monthly data shows a sustained upward trend with no sign of a single promotional spike, since every month from January to July 2025 exceeded its 2024 counterpart by a significant margin. July 2025 reached CN¥ 150 million, approximately double the July 2024 figure and the highest single-month reading in the dataset.

Baby diapers drive the category at CN¥ 760 million (+70.5% YoY). The number of brands in Vietnam's baby diaper category expanded from 154 in January 2024 to 228 by July 2025, an increase of 48%, which shows that the market is drawing new entrants. Feminine hygiene pads effectively doubled year-on-year to CN¥ 72.85 million (+103.6% YoY), and the fastest-growing product format was panty liners at +141% YoY, which follows the adoption of panty liners already seen in China's domestic market.

Vietnam's baby diaper market shows both the opportunity for Chinese brands and the calibration it requires. The CN¥ 40–60 mid-range remains the highest-volume segment at 30.8%, while the premium tiers are gaining, with the CN¥ 200+ range nearly doubling its volume share from 2.9% to 5.6% and the CN¥ 180–200 range growing from 0.8% to 1.5%, which suggests that Vietnamese consumers with rising incomes trade up when they are offered credible premium products.

The ingredient differentiation that has proven effective in China's domestic market can be applied directly in Vietnam. Products in Vietnam's baby diaper segment already compete on ingredient and technology credentials, such as organic wood pulp (Pinkdream), rice extract skin care (Bobby) and ultra-thin technology (Huggies), and these are positions that Chinese brands can build on with their domestic R&D capabilities.

Category Priorities#

Baby diapers represent the core opportunity at CN¥ 2.84 billion, approximately 79% of hygiene sales on leading marketplaces in Southeast Asia. Adult diapers are a smaller category with interesting structural features: Thailand's adult diaper sales of CN¥ 173 million are the highest in the region and reflect Thailand's share of people aged 65 and over of 16.0%, also the highest in Southeast Asia according to World Bank estimates for 2025. As Indonesia (7.5%) and Malaysia (8.0%) age over the next decade, we believe their adult diaper categories will develop along the path Thailand shows today. Brands that build positions in Southeast Asian adult diapers while the category is still small will be well placed as the population ages.

Implications for Chinese Brand Strategy#

A brand entering the region with limited resources should lead with Indonesia's volume, add Vietnam for growth, and then assess the Philippines as the third expansion market.

Chinese brands with strong product formulation can add ingredient-forward differentiation to MAKUKU's approach, a strategy supported by the shift towards premium baby diapers visible in Vietnam's price range data.

Marketplace operations in the region need active investment, including seller account optimisation, participation in the major promotional events (9.9, 11.11 and 12.12) and integration with the marketplaces' fulfilment services. We believe brands that run their marketplace stores as active commercial operations will convert far more of the demand these events create than brands that only list their products.

Conclusion#

The opportunity in Southeast Asian disposable hygiene for Chinese brands was open in 2025, because demographic conditions were favourable, logistics infrastructure had matured and competitive positions were not yet as entrenched as they are in China's domestic market.

We believe the Chinese brands that invest in marketplace operations, localised marketing and product quality over the next two to three years will gain an advantage that grows as Southeast Asian e-commerce penetration rises.

For the full market data across domestic China, North America, Europe and Southeast Asia, see the linked report below.