Minister Teten Responds To Criticism Of Commission VI Of The DPR Regarding Local E-commerce Starting To Bankrupt, This Is What He Said

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki opened his voice regarding domestic e-commerce which slowly began to go bankrupt, one of which was Bukalapak.

This was followed by criticism from a member of Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the PDIP faction, Mufti Anam, who said that domestic e-commerce began to go bankrupt because there were few buyers, namely Bukalapak.

According to him, Bukalapak has lost competitively with Shopee, namely e-commerce from a foreign country.

"I am now surprised that Shopee is extraordinary, 'I don't know why?' In fact, we have domestic e-commerce, for example Bukalapak, yes, (can be said) I apologize for almost going out of business. Well, we have something that can still be saved, namely Tokopedia," Anam said in a working meeting (raker) Commission VI DPR RI with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs at the Parliament Building Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, November 23.

Teten assessed that his party had proposed to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) several things, such as setting digital platforms and regulating predatory pricing.

"I have proposed to the president in a cabinet meeting after the TikTok Shop arrangement, we have to imitate China because in China I think there is already an arrangement that digital platforms in E-commerce should not monopolize the market. If 20-30 percent is a natural thing, but if someone controls 70-80 percent of the market, it's a sustainable business," said Teten when met after the 2023 Nusantara Story event at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Tuesday, November 28.

"What needs to be regulated next is the prohibition of predatory pricing. The prohibition of selling goods in e-commerce is under the HPP. We see in China, the model is like that," he added.

He admitted that so far the business competition in e-commerce has only been to enlarge the market share or the valuation of each business, so that various ways have been done. One of them is by selling products that are very cheap or known as predatory pricing.

"In fact, from the global platform there is a product from outside, it has been dumping and then subsidized in the country again by the platform. So, if we let the burning money continue to be burned to increase their business valuation, market share, this is definitely not a sustainable business model. Therefore, it must be regulated," he said.

Because, said Teten, if for example how to burn money in competition in e-commerce to enlarge the market share, it will have a negative impact, such as hitting the e-commerce itself, or there will be a digital market monopoly by one of the platforms with enormous capital power.

"But, on the other hand, they can also beat MSME players, beat offline traders. So, those two things must be (regulated)," he added.

When asked further about when the regulations related to this matter will be realized, Teten said that until now it is still under discussion. "This is still under discussion in the government," he added.