What: Indonesia makes a drastic move to safeguard traditional retail

Why it is important: It is the first country to ban sales on Tiktok. Who will be next?

Indonesia has prohibited e-commerce transactions on social media platforms to safeguard traditional retail, a move primarily affecting TikTok and its shopping feature. The ban aims to defend offline businesses in the region from predatory pricing on social platforms, which threatens small to medium enterprises. The Trade Minister  emphasized the regulation ensures a level playing field in business competition and user data protection. Furthermore, e-commerce platforms in Indonesia must set a minimum price of $100 for certain directly imported items and ensure products comply with local standards.

TikTok is the primary business affected by this ban. TikTok has over six million local sellers and 125 million users in Indonesia. The country recorded e-commerce transactions worth nearly $52 billion last year, with 5% occurring on TikTok, primarily via live-streaming. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese tech firm.

Indonesia bans e-commerce on social media