The TikTok Shop menu has disappeared from the TikTok Indonesia app following a ban by the Indonesian government and pressure from offline merchants.

Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said that social commerce platforms can only promote goods or services, but are prohibited from opening transaction facilities, also known as buying and selling, for users.

"Social commerce can only facilitate the promotion of goods or services, not direct transactions, direct payments, nothing more, they can only promote," Mr Hasan said, as quoted by Antara, Monday (25/9/2023).

TikTok has shut down the TikTok Shop service in Indonesia as of 5 pm, Wednesday 4 October 2023.

As seen today (22 October), the TikTok Shop tab is missing, only the Home, Discover, +, Inbox and Profile tabs are present.

Earlier, TikTok decided to close the buying and selling service on its platform as part of TikTok's efforts to respect and comply with applicable laws and regulations in Indonesia.

With the closure of TikTok Shop, the Chinese social network will no longer be able to facilitate in-app e-commerce transactions for Indonesian users.

Meanwhile, TikTok Shop will reportedly reopen on 10 November 2023, with a new format, of course.

"I suspect that the management of TikTok Shop will take care of the license of TikTok Shop as e-commerce, because social commerce is banned. Let's wait for the announcement," said M. Tesar Sandikapura, chairman of the Indonesian Digital Empowering Community (IDIEC), in a press release on Friday (20 October).

According to research institute Statista, the number of TikTok users in Indonesia has reached 113 million. This number is the second largest in the world after the United States.

According to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, TikTok Shop's GMV in Indonesia reached US$2.5 billion. This figure accounts for the majority of TikTok Shop's total GMV in Southeast Asia of US$4.4 billion.

As of today (22 October), TikTok Indonesia has not provided any official information on when TikTok Shop will return to e-commerce.