The TikTok feature, namely Shop in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, has experienced a rapid increase during 2022, making this social media giant a new player in e-commerce that can make old players confused. Including Shopee and Tokopedia who are now starting to worry.

According to internal data obtained by The Information, quoted on Friday, January 13, the transaction value of TikTok Shop has skyrocketed more than four times throughout 2022. Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) or the total value of goods in user transactions in Southeast Asia has skyrocketed to US$4.4 billion or approximately Rp68 trillion.

The main factor in its growth, especially if it is not its new feature which was recently introduced in 2021, TikTok Shop. In addition, the way they sell is claimed to be able to attract users by Live Streaming in the application.

ByteDance, the parent company of China-based TikTok, has internally discussed plans to expand its e-commerce business this year in more countries, including the US, Brazil, Spain and Australia.

TikTok in November last year, began testing the start of the TikTok Shop feature in the US, where users can make online purchases from traders without leaving the app.

Despite the many challenges, TikTok does not give up and this is not the first time the platform has such a slick achievement.

Previously, a Populix survey revealed that Tiktok Shop has been used by 45 percent of the people in Indonesia.

This figure makes it higher than Meta's platform, making it difficult to overtake it, namely WhatsApp with 21 percent, Facebook Shop with 10 percent and Instagram Shop with 10 percent.

Of the many users who access TikTok Shop, Populix says it is mostly used by women compared to men. On the other hand, WhatsApp and Instagram Shop are mostly used by men aged 36 to 45 years.

In addition, in the same research 52 percent of Indonesians are aware of the trend of buying and selling transactions through social media. This is a new online shopping option that is quite comfortable, where users can interact directly with sellers and then still be able to explore social media without having to leave the application.


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