Alibaba.com, the international online wholesale arm of Alibaba Group Holding, is trying to win over ByteDance’s TikTok sellers in Southeast Asia after the short video app TikTok was forced to suspend e-commerce activities in Indonesia.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, banned e-commerce transactions through social media apps at the end of September to protect the country's small businesses. TikTok complied with the ban and stopped sales activities on its e-commerce platform TikTokShop.
Alibaba.com, the B2B platform founded by Alibaba in 1999, said in a statement on Tuesday that it had launched Plan S to provide "traffic, operations and logistics" support to merchants affected by Indonesia's rule changes. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Under the plan, Alibaba.com provides merchants with "one-click relocation" services, including translation and intelligent sorting tools, to help merchants open new stores on Alibaba.com and migrate their online businesses. Alibaba's website did not mention TikTok in its statement.
For newly opened stores, Alibaba.com promises three to six months of traffic support, giving them more opportunities to reach potential buyers. In particular, Alibaba.com will provide each merchant with a tailor-made export plan, allowing them to better target the Southeast Asian market.
The Alibaba platform stated that it will also assign dedicated service personnel to provide "one-on-one" support to merchants and help them complete logistics and accounting procedures: "Due to recent Indonesian e-commerce regulations, uncertainty in the Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce market has increased, and Alibaba hopes to become a paradise for "B2B digital foreign trade."
For many Chinese businessmen, Southeast Asia is a growing and lucrative market. According to the British "Post" report in July, as Alibaba radically restructures its business, the company has invested an additional US$845 million in Lazada, Alibaba's online retail arm in the region, and the Chinese technology giant is eyeing overseas expansion.
TikTok has encountered setbacks in Indonesia. In July 2018, Indonesia became the first country to ban the short video app on the grounds that it spread "pornography, inappropriate content and blasphemy against religion". TikTok responded by adding content moderators in the country, and the ban was lifted eight days later.
The international e-commerce business has become one of Alibaba's fastest growing businesses recently, competing with companies such as fast fashion app Shein and PDD Holding's Temu.
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