Asian Tech Press (Mar. 1) -- Singapore's Shopee is pulling out of the French e-commerce market, retreating from a major market just over five months after entering Europe.

In a notice on its French website, the e-commerce platform said the site would shut down on March 6, promising to fulfill all paid orders by then.

France is one of the most important new markets for Singapore-based Internet giant Sea Ltd., which began an aggressive international push last year to drive growth outside Southeast Asia.

Sea Ltd.'s flagship e-commerce platform Shopee entered the European market in September last year, with its first stop in Poland, and then entered Spain and France in October.

In France, Shopee has faced competition from Amazon, AliExpress and local shopping site Cdiscount, among others.

"After a short-term and preliminary pilot, we have decided not to continue the Shopee services in France," the company said in a statement.