JakartaPost/Reuters-Oct 27
TikTok and YouTube are considering joining Meta in applying for e-commerce licenses in Indonesia after Southeast Asia’s largest economy banned online shopping on social media platforms, people familiar with the discussions said. Indonesia’s trade ministry banned e-commerce transactions on social media a month ago, saying it sought to protect small and midsize offline merchants and marketplaces, and to ensure users’ data was protected. With a population of more than 270 million, Indonesia generated nearly $52 billion in e-commerce transactions last year, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works. The law was a particular blow to TikTok, which had pledged in June to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia where it has a base of 125 million users, in a major push to build its e-commerce service TikTok Shop. The app, owned by Chinese technology giant Bytedance, plans to apply for an e-commerce license and is exploring the best path to do so, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. TikTok is holding talks for potential partnerships with local e-commerce players, including GoTo’s Tokopedia, while building a standalone TikTok Shop app for Indonesia, the people said. Until TikTok Shop stopped operations in Indonesia this month, it was delivering about 3 million parcels a day in Indonesia, two sources said. Alphabet’s YouTube is also planning to apply for an e-commerce license, two sources said, without specifying the type of permit planned. Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms applied this month for a type of e-commerce license allowing the promotion of goods on its platforms but no direct e-commerce transactions, said the Indonesian trade ministry’s director general of domestic trade, Isy Karim. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2023/10/27/tiktok-youtube-meta-eye-indonesia-e-commerce-licenses–sources.html.
