Indonesia has threatened to curb TikTok’s shopping platform, months after the Chinese-owned viral video app said it would invest billions of dollars in the fast-growing south-east Asian country. The minister of co-operatives and small and medium enterprises, Teten Masduki, on Wednesday accused TikTok Shop of “monopolistic” business practices at a high-level meeting of industry and investment officials in the House of Representatives, according to a government statement.
Teten said Indonesia should “reject and prohibit” the viral short-video app from combining online shopping with its social media platform, and follow the lead of other countries including the US and India in limiting the company’s activities.
The success of the ecommerce unit is crucial if TikTok is to justify its $300bn valuation, which makes it among the world’s most highly valued private companies. The export of the Chinese group’s shopping model overseas has been beset by problems and it has already been forced to restructure the business.