TikTok Immediately Gets An E-commerce Permit In Indonesia, Partners With Local Companies

JAKARTA - The short video application TikTok is currently in the process of obtaining an e-commerce permit from the Indonesian government, as reported by Antara, citing a statement by the deputy minister of trade.

In September, Indonesia issued a ban on e-commerce transactions through social media, a major blow to TikTok, which has pledged to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, as the largest economic country in the ASEAN region.

"Previously, they (TikTok) did not comply, they did not have a permit. Now they are taking care of it," said deputy trading minister Jerry Sambuaga as quoted by Antara.

He stated that cooperation with local companies can be carried out as long as it is in accordance with applicable regulations.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has 125 million monthly active users in Indonesia, a country with more than 270 million inhabitants. TikTok seeks to turn a large user base into a significant source of e-commerce revenue.

Until now, TikTok has not provided a response regarding the deputy minister's statement.

Previously, Reuters reported that TikTok was in talks for possible cooperation with several Indonesian e-commerce companies, including GoTo's e-commerce units, namely Tokopedia, Bukalapak.com, and Blibli.