On October 11, according to foreign media reports, Ganesh Kumar Bangah, chairman of the Malaysian E-Commerce Commission, said that banning TikTok e-commerce will cause serious damage to small, medium and micro enterprises, short video creators and e-commerce practitioners.
Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Chairman of the Malaysian E-Commerce Council
In early October, there was news that the Malaysian government was reviewing a policy to ban e-commerce businesses on TikTok. This statement by Ganesh Kumar Bangah is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for small and medium-sized businesses in Malaysia. Malaysia’s potential ban is a microcosm of the continued setbacks for TikTok e-commerce in Southeast Asia over the past month.
On September 27, Indonesia issued its first ban, requiring TikTok to separate its social media and e-commerce functions, which means that TikTok’s e-commerce business TikTokShop will no longer be able to serve Indonesian users. As soon as the ban was announced, many local small, medium and micro businesses strongly opposed it. Data shows that TikTokShop has been developing in Indonesia for more than two years, and there are more than 6 million local merchants active on the platform. Some businesses said bluntly that the government's ban had cut off their livelihoods.
It is worth noting that after Indonesia, many Southeast Asian countries are also following up on investigations into TikTok. According to foreign media reports, Vietnam has completed a nearly five-month investigation into TikTok. The investigation results showed that TikTok violated many regulations related to e-commerce and other matters. Vietnam required TikTok to complete rectifications within 30 days.
TikTok e-commerce sadly withdrew from Indonesia, which relieved many e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia. Currently, in this region, Shopee, Lazada and Indonesian local platforms Tokopedia, Bukalapak, etc. have formed a multi-power competition for hegemony. After TikTok e-commerce is forced out, these platforms may benefit in the short term.
Ganesh Kumar Bangah said that if Malaysia follows Indonesia and bans TikTok e-commerce, it will also invisibly restrict the development of local companies. It is understood that nearly 80% of enterprises in Malaysia are small, medium and micro enterprises. For many merchants, TikTok is an important sales channel.
Ganesh Kumar Bangah also affirmed the huge influence of TikTok's "social e-commerce". He believes that TikTok e-commerce allows companies and content creators to directly connect with consumers and promotes the development of the e-commerce industry. “Social commerce” is one of the most important innovations in the field of e-commerce in recent decades, comparable to the wave of changes triggered by the American e-commerce platform Ebay decades ago.
Previously, Fami, the Minister of Communications and Digital of Malaysia, said that some people asked him and were worried that the local government would follow Indonesia's example and ban TikTok e-commerce. In this regard, he said that he will study the reasons for Indonesia's ban, formulate appropriate measures against TikTok, and will negotiate with relevant people in TikTok in the near future.