A seller wraps merchandise to send to her customer who she's dealing, using live streaming at a store in the Tanah Abang textile market in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. TikTok said it will halt its online-retail operation in Indonesia on Wednesday to comply with the country's decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, a big blow to the video platform's fastest-growing market. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
A seller wraps merchandise to send to her customer who she's dealing, using live streaming at a store in the Tanah Abang textile market in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. TikTok said it will halt its online-retail operation in Indonesia on Wednesday to comply with the country's decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, a big blow to the video platform's fastest-growing market. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) 鈥 TikTok said it will halt its online retail operation in Indonesia on Wednesday to comply with the country鈥檚 decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms 鈥 a big blow to the video platform's fastest-growing market.
The Indonesian government announced the new regulation, which prohibits social media companies from facilitating sales of products on their platforms, on Sept. 28 in a bid to protect small businesses from e-commerce competition, accusing the popular apps and websites of predatory pricing.
The Chinese-owned video sharing app said in a statement it will stop facilitating e-commerce sales in TikTok Shop Indonesia by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
鈥淥ur priority is to remain compliant with local laws and regulations,鈥 said the statement released Tuesday on its website.
Indonesia鈥檚 Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the ban aims to 鈥減revent the domination of the algorithm and prevent the use of personal data in business interests" and "create a fair, healthy and beneficial electronic commerce ecosystem,鈥 according to a statement released by the Trade Ministry when the ban was announced. It said marketplaces and sellers can only offer or promote goods and services.
A week before the ban was announced, Southeast Asia鈥檚 largest wholesale market, Tanah Abang, came under inspection. Sellers at the market in the capital, Jakarta, were experiencing a more than 50% loss of profits because they could not compete with imported products sold online at much lower prices, according to Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Teten Masduki.
He said TikTok was involved in predatory pricing that caused damages to local small- and medium-sized businesses, and that the new regulation 鈥渨ill justly regulate fair trade online and offline.鈥
Days after the ban was announced, the government鈥檚 decision 鈥 particularly the impact it would have on the millions of sellers who use TikTok Shop. But the company said it will respect the regulations and 鈥渨ill take a constructive path forward."
Southeast Asia, a region home to more than 675 million people, is one of TikTok鈥檚 biggest markets in terms of user numbers, generating more than 325 million visitors to the app every month.
TikTok, owned by China鈥檚 ByteDance, is also facing scrutiny from some governments and regulators because of concerns that Beijing could use the app to harvest user data or advance its interests. have , despite that it has ever shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.
