DIGIVESTASI - The Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Kemenkop UKM) has revealed the current state of SMEs following the acquisition of Tokopedia by TikTok. Fiki Satari, the Special Staff to the Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs for Creative Economy Empowerment, stated that almost 80% of the digital e-commerce economy in Indonesia is now controlled by foreign platforms due to this acquisition. According to him, investment regulations in Indonesia remain very lenient regarding e-commerce platforms. "Tokopedia was the best local platform before the acquisition, holding the second position in e-commerce market share," he said during a discussion at KemenKopUKM, Jakarta, on Tuesday (6/8/2024).

Fiki also highlighted that TikTok and Tokopedia continue to promote imported products without listing official import numbers. He stressed the need for joint oversight between the government and the public over imported products on e-commerce platforms.

This oversight is necessary to protect local products from the influx of imported goods sold online. Based on data from KemenKopUKM, 74% of products on e-commerce platforms are imported. "However, with the large number of items sold on e-commerce, it is difficult for Kemenkop UKM to inspect everything alone. We hope that a special committee will be formed to handle this in the future," he explained.

Wientor Rah Mada, the President Director of Smesco Indonesia, emphasized that SMEs are not benefiting from the merger between TikTok and Tokopedia. Echoing Fiki's concerns, Wientor stated that Shop Tokopedia, which evolved from TikTok Shop after the merger with Tokopedia, still predominantly promotes imported products. Even products promoted in the "Beli Lokal" (Buy Local) program by Shop Tokopedia turned out to be imported. Wientor stressed that the only party truly benefiting from this merger are the shareholders, while the country and local workers suffer, with 450 Tokopedia employees laid off following the TikTok acquisition. "The question is, does this acquisition provide benefits? I don't think so, not up to this point," said Wientor.

It is known that Tokopedia announced it had completed the migration of TikTok Shop to Shop Tokopedia in accordance with the Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 31 of 2023 on March 27, 2024. The Tokopedia-TikTok parties also met with the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) on April 2, 2024, to discuss the developments in the collaboration between TikTok and Tokopedia.

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