Meta, TikTok, and YouTube Race for E-commerce Licenses After Indonesia's Social Media Sales Ban

Meta Platforms Inc META, TikTok, and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL YouTube are keen to apply for e-commerce licenses in Indonesia after the country banned online shopping on social media platforms.

Indonesia's trade ministry prohibited e-commerce transactions on social media in September, citing the protection of data and small and midsize offline merchants and marketplaces.

According to data, Indonesia generated nearly $52 billion in e-commerce transactions in 2022.

The ban posed a bummer for ByteDance Ltd's TikTok, which eyed billions of dollars in investment in Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia, where it has a base of 125 million users, in a major push to build its e-commerce service TikTok Shop.

TikTok is eying potential partnerships with local e-commerce players, including GoTo's Tokopedia while building a standalone TikTok Shop app for Indonesia, Reuters cites familiar sources.

Until TikTok Shop stopped operations in Indonesia in October, it delivered about 3 million parcels daily in Indonesia.

YouTube launched in the U.S. a shopping service for creators to promote products and brands on the platform.

In October, Meta applied for a type of e-commerce license allowing the promotion of goods on its platforms but no direct e-commerce transactions, as per the Indonesian Trade Ministry's director general of domestic trade, Isy Karim. 

The permit would enable vendors to advertise goods and do market surveys without in-app transactions. Meta also seeks a license for its Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram apps.