TikTok Shop Officially Stopped, Seller Feels Hit By Mass Layoffs

Illustration of TikTok (Photo: Doc. TikTok)

JAKARTA - TikTok Indonesia has officially stopped buying and selling transactions on the TikTok Shop service since Wednesday, October 4 at 17.00 WIB. This step is in response to government regulations that prohibit social media from selling.

Dennies Soesanto, one of the suitcase sellers and bags on TikTok Shop, regretted the closure of the TikTok Shop service. He assessed that the government's efforts to close the TikTok Shop were considered mass layoffs for traders. Sellers on TikTok Shop are now starting to reduce sales stock.

"(In) one month it might reduce the stock to a thin profit. In fact, a lot of sellers build new studios, then I myself just added new hosts starting this month," said Dennies to VOI, Thursday, October 5.

He added that currently many of his employees are unemployed as a result of the closure of the TikTok Shop.

"Certainly, the employees in the TikTok division are unemployed today, so they have to have a meeting and think about a new strategy on other platforms," he said.

"So, many employees should work as usual, now unemployed and I'm still confused, here, what to do," added Dennies.

As for the order side (order), said Dennies, his party felt a very drastic decline in sales.

"Losses from the order side are very, very low, yes, today, because maybe for me, the busiest person is actually on TikTok compared to other e-commerce, because, right, the algorithm has been formed by me. So, of course, the impact is very, very large, the decline is very drastic," he said.

Even so, Dennies will still accept the rules issued by the government. He has also prepared future steps regarding this matter.

"Steps forward, yes, we take advantage of other existing platforms, you start from 0, we form again, we analyze again in other e-commerce like what, and it is adjusted while waiting for the new TikTok, because I heard, right, this is just separated. So, yes, we'll just wait from TikTok until the e-commerce permit comes out so we can shop again on the TikTok Shop application," he concluded.