Marketplace as a business in Kazakhstan

19.09.2023

• What is a marketplace?
• How to launch your marketplace in Kazakhstan?
• Write to our lawyer to find out more

Kazakhstan's online market has great potential. The state has created all the conditions for this. The state programme "Digital Kazakhstan" played a fundamental role. The aim of the programme was to accelerate the pace of development of Kazakhstan's economy, including improving the quality of life for the population, and to provide conditions for the transition of the economy to a digital one.

The results of the Digital Intelligence Index*, conducted among the largest countries in the world, show that Kazakhstan ranked 20th in terms of the speed of digitalisation development. A significant part of digitalisation is e-commerce, which is the most important factor of economic growth not only in Kazakhstan, but also worldwide. 

The rapid development of e-commerce and its growing popularity is leading to an increase in the number of people wishing to start a business in this field, which suggests that e-commerce is poised for growth in the coming decades. The attractiveness is also reflected in the increased efficiency of delivery, the use of new delivery methods, the use of analytics, and the popularity of mobile applications. And all this becomes possible and promising thanks to IT-technologies, which do not stand still and are constantly improving.

And of course, marketplaces remain the most popular platforms in Kazakhstan for retail trade in goods, services and works.

For the creators of a marketplace, this is a highly profitable business. Obviously, at first it is necessary to invest considerable funds in development and promotion in the marketplace. But there is a high probability that in the future, Sellers and Buyers will seek to enter the marketplace by agreeing to the company's terms and conditions.

Today, the most popular electronic trading platforms in Kazakhstan are Kaspi.kz, Aviata.kz, Wildberries.kz, Airastana.com, Sulpak.kz, Olx.kz, Glovoapp.com, Chocotravel.com, Tickets.kz, Kolesa.kz, Arbuz.kz, MagnumGo.

What is a marketplace?

In simple terms, a marketplace is an electronic platform on which suppliers offer goods or services (works) for sale. As a rule, a marketplace is not the owner of goods, works or services, it performs intermediary functions between the Buyer and the Seller.

How to launch your marketplace in Kazakhstan?

The first step is to register the company. Traditionally, the most popular organisational and legal form of a company's legal entity in Kazakhstan is an LLP (Limited Liability Partnership). To register a legal entity it is necessary to:

1. Draw up the constituent documents.
2. Check the name of the company. 
3. For non-residents, obtain an Individual Identification Number (IIN) / Business Identification Number (BIN).
4. Register the LLP online (for residents) or through the Population Service Centre (PSC) (for non-residents).

For companies entitled to apply the simplified taxation regime, it is also necessary to submit a "Notification on the applied taxation regime" to the State Revenue Department within 5 working days after registration. This will allow you to operate with reduced tax rates and optimise your costs Otherwise, the General Taxation Regime will be automatically applied. The simplified taxation regime may not be applied by all companies. In most cases at the initial stage of the company marketplace falls under this regime, but we recommend in any case to check for the presence of this right. There is a certain set of criteria, including the composition of participants, annual turnover and so on.

It should be noted that if the founder of the LLP will be a non-resident individual, the first step is to obtain a C5 Business Immigrant Visa (for all but EAEU citizens) and obtain an IIN. A notarised copy of the international passport (legalised or with an apostille) with a notarised translation into Kazakh and Russian is also required.

If the founder of the LLP will be a non-resident legal entity, it is initially necessary to prepare notarised copies of the founder's documents (legalised or with an apostille), with notarised translations into Kazakh and Russian.

In terms of taxation in Kazakhstan, standard variants of taxation of legal entities are applied to marketplaces, without any increased or special taxes.

At the same time, foreign marketplaces may operate without registering a legal entity in Kazakhstan. In this case, foreign marketplaces need to comply with the requirements of the tax legislation by paying VAT in Kazakhstan. The VAT rate is 12% and is applied to the amount of taxable turnover and taxable imports.

And most importantly, once the marketplace starts operating, it is necessary to comply with the requirements of the legislation of Kazakhstan for marketplaces, namely in terms of language, consumer protection, informatisation, protection of personal data, payments, mass media, advertising and others.  And, if the registration procedure is quite simple, these requirements are quite extensive, and their non-compliance entails certain legal and financial consequences. We recommend paying considerable attention to the study of this regulation.
 

If you have any questions requiring advice on company registration or legal support of marketplace activities in Kazakhstan, our REVERA Kazakhstan team, which has considerable experience in corporate law, is ready to support your entry into the market of Kazakhstan.

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