Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, October 27 (Xinhua)-- TikTok and YouTube are considering applying for an e-commerce license in Indonesia together with Meta after the Indonesian government banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, Reuters reported.

It is understood that Indonesia's Ministry of Trade banned e-commerce transactions on social media a month ago, saying it aims to protect small and medium-sized offline merchants and markets and to ensure that user data are protected.

Indonesia, with a population of more than 270 million, had nearly $52 billion in e-commerce transactions last year (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 380.64 billion yuan), according to consultancy Momentum Works.

The law is a major blow to TikTok, which in June pledged to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, mainly Indonesia, which has 125 million users, to vigorously promote the establishment of its e-commerce service, TikTok Shop.

TikTok plans to apply for an e-commerce license and is exploring the best way, according to three people familiar with the matter. TikTok is in talks with local e-commerce companies, including Tokopedia, owned by GoTo, about potential partnerships and developing independent TikTok Shop applications for Indonesia, according to people familiar with the matter.

Until TikTok Shop stopped operating in Indonesia this month, the company delivered about 3 million parcels a day in Indonesia. TikTok said it could neither confirm nor deny that it was considering seeking permission.

YouTube, owned by Alphabet, also plans to apply for an e-commerce license, but did not specify the type of license planned, according to two sources. YouTube has launched a shopping service in the United States for creators to promote products and brands on the platform.

It is worth mentioning that Meta applied for an e-commerce license this month to promote goods on its platform, but not to conduct e-commerce transactions directly.

Isy Karim, director-general of domestic trade at Indonesia's Ministry of Trade, said the licence would allow suppliers to advertise goods and conduct market research, but not intra-application trading. He added that Meta was seeking licenses for its Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram applications.

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"TikTok is frustrated by Indonesia's ban on selling goods on social media platforms."

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