TikTok Emerges as Threat to Amazon With $20 Billion Shopping Pilot

Booming Indonesia offers a template for TikTok's global e-commerce push

A TikTok Shop livestreaming session at Flame Media’s studio in Jakarta. Flame Media manages a cast of around 50 live-streaming hosts at a bustling Jakarta shophouse. — A TikTok Shop livestreaming session at Flame Media’s studio in Jakarta. Flame Media manages a cast of around 50 live-streaming hosts at a bustling Jakarta shophouse.
Photographer: Rosa Panggabean/Bloomberg

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By Zheping Huang, Olivia Poh, Alex Barinka, and Yoolim Lee

July 5, 2023 at 10:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Inside a shophouse in Northeast Jakarta, dozens of salespeople take turns peddling cosmetics, contact lenses and hair accessories. A woman helps a potential customer choose the right shade of lipstick for her skin tone, while a man yells out the latest markdown on vitamin tablets.

This is no raucous flea market. It’s a livestreamed marketplace within TikTok, and a gold rush for entrepreneurs seeking fortunes on the world’s most popular short-video app. For the company, best known for viral dance challenges and owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., TikTok Shop is its fastest-growing feature with a burgeoning fan base in Southeast Asia.