ndonesia’s e‑commerce market is undergoing dramatic policy shifts. In late July, Indonesia’s anti‑monopoly body KPPU officially launched an anti‑monopoly investigation against TikTok Shop, focusing on four alleged violations: vertical integration, monopoly, dominant market position, and predatory pricing. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has issued new regulations scheduled to take effect at the end of August. Major platforms including Shopee, Tokopedia and TikTok Shop will offer up to 50% service‑fee discounts for local MSME merchants selling domestic products.
The investigation brings market uncertainty, while new rules deliver policy dividends for local businesses. For sellers operating in Indonesia, this represents both risk warnings and transformation opportunities. Business models overly reliant on single‑platform traffic have become fragile. Building diversified influencer marketing capabilities and brand‑owned assets has become a key way for sellers to hedge against policy volatility.
Key Market Data:
- TikTok Shop Indonesia GMV reached approximately 10.8 billion US dollars in H1 of 2026. Full‑year 2025 GMV hit 14.875 billion US dollars, accounting for around 24% of TikTok’s global GMV.
- Six Southeast Asian countries contribute more than 70% of TikTok’s total global GMV, and Indonesia stands as TikTok Shop’s most important single market across Southeast Asia.
- Four investigation directions from KPPU: vertical integration, monopoly, market dominance, predatory pricing.
What Happened to TikTok Shop Indonesia?
This anti‑monopoly investigation originates from a report filed by APLE, the Indonesian Logistics Entrepreneurs Association. The core dispute targets TikTok Shop’s vertical‑integration model covering content, e‑commerce, logistics and payment. The association claims the platform gives preferential treatment to its own logistics services and squeezes third‑party logistics operators.
It should be noted that the investigation falls within the regulatory supervision window for TikTok’s acquisition of Tokopedia. KPPU conditionally approved this acquisition in June 2025 with supervision valid until June 2027. One requirement explicitly forbids the platform from favouring in‑house services and mandates open access for third‑party logistics and payment providers.
The investigation does not mean immediate platform shutdown, yet it introduces high uncertainty. Investigations usually run for months, during which platforms tend to adopt conservative strategies regarding subsidies, business integration and new‑feature launches. For sellers, the biggest threat is not immediate suspension, but potential adjustments to platform rules, traffic allocation and fee policies.
Separately, another major policy will come into force by the end of August. Under new rules from the Ministry of MSMEs, Shopee, Tokopedia and TikTok Shop must provide up to 50% service‑fee discounts for qualified local MSME merchants selling domestic goods to support local manufacturing.
Taken together, these two events send a clear signal: Indonesia’s e‑commerce regulatory landscape has shifted. Platforms are required to further open up to local industries, small‑and‑medium merchants and third‑party service providers. The era of growth driven purely by traffic subsidies is drawing to an end.
Impacts on Indonesian Sellers
Market turbulence transmits risks to every market participant, covering local MSME merchants as well as cross‑border TK sellers entering Indonesia. Four practical impacts deserve attention.
1. Higher business risks for single‑platform operators Many sellers previously concentrated nearly all traffic and sales on TikTok Shop, relying on algorithm‑recommended feeds and live streams to generate revenue. Once platform rules, traffic algorithms or commission structures change, such businesses will suffer direct setbacks. Platform‑generated benefits can be leveraged, yet they never fully belong to sellers.
2. Local merchants gain cost advantages; cross‑border sellers need re‑positioning The upcoming 50% service‑fee discount applies exclusively to MSMEs selling locally‑manufactured goods. Cross‑border stores importing overseas products cannot access this incentive, creating a cost gap versus local competitors. Cross‑border sellers must pursue differentiated strategies instead of competing purely on low prices.
3. Higher strategic value for influencer cooperation Platform‑driven traffic is subject to change, but relationships with quality creators and brand reputation within creator circles are proprietary brand assets. As public‑domain traffic costs keep rising, influencer seeding and affiliate marketing help accumulate brand awareness and offset policy‑related operational risks.
4. Competition shifts from traffic gaming toward compliance and supply‑chain strength Stricter regulation curbs predatory low‑price tactics and large‑scale subsidy campaigns. For both local and cross‑border sellers, compliance qualifications, supply‑chain competence and influencer marketing capacity form long‑term survival foundations.
Opportunities Amid Turmoil: The 50% Service‑Fee Discount
The upcoming service‑fee reduction represents a critical window for Indonesian local MSMEs, though strict eligibility conditions apply and sellers should avoid over‑optimism.
✅ Qualification criteria for the discount
- Officially‑certified Indonesian micro or small‑scale MSME entities;
- Stores primarily sell domestically‑manufactured Indonesian goods;
- Complete official qualification registration on corresponding platforms.
❌ Groups excluded from the policy
- Pure cross‑border stores selling imported overseas goods;
- Individual sellers without formal MSME certification;
- Local stores selling large volumes of non‑domestic products.
Qualified local merchants directly enjoy improved profit margins thanks to halved service fees. Nevertheless, cost reduction will not automatically bring higher sales. Lower fees cut expenditure, but revenue growth still depends on content creation, influencer seeding and affiliate distribution. Many merchants secure discounted rates yet passively wait for organic platform traffic, failing to convert policy benefits into real orders.
Key insight: Policies lower operating costs, they do not deliver traffic. While cutting costs, merchants must proactively build their own influencer marketing pipelines.
How Sellers Protect Themselves: Diversified Influencer Cooperation Channels Matter
Faced with policy uncertainty, Indonesian sellers should not exit the market. Instead, reduce over‑reliance on single‑platform public traffic and build a dual‑mode framework: platform stores serve as transaction foundations while influencer marketing functions as growth engines. Four actionable directions are listed below.
1. Business strategy: Avoid putting all eggs in one platform
Maintain basic store presences on Tokopedia and Shopee to diversify policy risks. Treat TikTok Shop as an important growth channel rather than your sole sales outlet.
2. Asset building: Build private influencer pools instead of only consuming platform traffic
Many sellers source creators solely from official platform pools, with connections breaking once collaborations finish. Proactively build proprietary influencer lists, classify high‑conversion creators, potential micro‑creators and high‑risk accounts to accumulate your own creator assets. You can keep cooperating with these creators even after platform rule adjustments.
Core viewpoint: Platforms allocate traffic, but they cannot own your creator relationships.
3. Operation strategy: Prioritize local creators and distinguish local versus cross‑border influencers
Nano and micro‑influencers in Indonesia frequently outperform top‑tier KOLs in conversion performance. Prioritize creators with authentic followers, niche vertical positioning and stable fulfillment records. Cross‑border sellers should select local creators receptive to imported goods and avoid influencers whose audiences only favour domestic Indonesian merchandise.
4. Process upgrade: Standardize influencer‑marketing workflows and abandon rough Excel‑based management
As your number of cooperating creators expands, manual spreadsheets for outreach, sample dispatch, fulfillment and ROI tracking easily generate omissions. Adopt standardized workflows: filter creators → send outreach → register sample shipments → monitor fulfillment → review performance. Save data from every collaboration and continuously refine your screening standards.
How DAMI Helps Sellers Mitigate Risks
Against Indonesia’s fast‑changing regulatory backdrop, both local Indonesian MSMEs and Southeast‑Asia‑focused cross‑border TK sellers need to upgrade influencer marketing from speculative side projects to standardized, accumulative systems.
DAMI is an end‑to‑end influencer outreach and management tool built for TikTok Shop merchants, well‑suited for addressing current market uncertainties:
- Cross‑border influencer database for proprietary asset accumulation: Access a multi‑million‑creator database covering Indonesia, US, Latin America and Southeast Asian markets. Archive high‑performing and blacklisted creators to construct fully private influencer pools independent from official platform recommendation lists. Creator resources remain usable even amid platform policy shifts.
- Efficient bulk outreach to scale creator acquisition: Support scheduled bulk invitations and AI‑powered localized outreach copy. Escape manual one‑by‑one private‑message work, efficiently onboard nano and micro niche creators, build diversified creator matrices and lower risks stemming from over‑reliance on individual creators or single traffic sources.
- Standardized fulfillment ledgers to replace spreadsheets: Centrally record outreach status, sample logistics, creator delivery progress and return‑on‑investment metrics. Eliminate follow‑up omissions for multi‑creator projects, keeping full traceability for every sample shipment and cooperation case.
- Data review to identify revenue‑generating creators: Aggregate influencer‑driven sales performance data, classify creators into profitable, break‑even and loss‑making groups. Scale up high‑quality creators and phase out under‑performing accounts for continuously optimized influencer ROI.
Tools cannot eliminate regulatory market risks, yet DAMI accelerates the construction of proprietary influencer‑marketing infrastructure. It converts creator relationships into intangible corporate assets and decreases dependency on single‑platform traffic.
💡 Closing Thoughts Indonesia’s e‑commerce space has left behind the era of effortless growth from platform traffic. Anti‑monopoly investigations and local‑merchant support policies point toward one clear trend: surviving sellers will not be those who merely capture platform dividends. Winners combine solid supply‑chain capacity, compliance capabilities and self‑owned creator assets.
Platform rules may change anytime, but trust and partnerships built between brands and local creators act as moats that survive market cycles.
If you are navigating Indonesia’s policy uncertainties and aim to build proprietary influencer cooperation systems, both cross‑border TK sellers and local Indonesian merchants can test DAMI’s core features. Quickly build diversified influencer matrices, strengthen risk‑resistance and capture growth amid market shifts.