TikTok Stops E-commerce Transactions In Indonesia After Government Ban

TikTok obeys the ban on the Indonesian government (photo: dock. Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The short video application TikTok announced that it will stop all e-commerce transactions on their platform in Indonesia, starting Wednesday October. This step is a response to the new Indonesian government's ban on e-commerce trading through social media.

TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, stated that it will cooperate with the Indonesian government to formulate their future plans.

"Our priority is to adhere to local laws and regulations. Therefore, we will no longer facilitate e-commerce transactions on TikTok Shop Indonesia," TikTok said in an official statement.

The e-commerce ban on social media, imposed by the government last week, aims to protect merchants and offline markets. The government states that a detrimental pricing on social media platforms threatens small and medium enterprises.

However, from TikTok's statement it's unclear if the platform plans to create a new e-commerce app separate from their social media apps.

TikTok's decision is in line with the grace period given by the government for one week to comply with the new rules, to avoid the threat of closure.