Indonesia’s communications minister said on Oct. 11 that the nation had asked Google and Apple to block Temu from their app stores in a bid to protect small businesses.
Temu, a China-based, ultra-low-price e-commerce app, currently operates in only a few Southeast Asian countries. Globally, it’s available in 79 countries. According to a Momentum Works report, its 2023 gross market value was just $100 million in Southeast Asia compared to $16.3 billion in the United States.
In the United States, it has come under fire for links to forced labor. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) persecution of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, where about 90 percent of the country’s cotton comes from, is known to involve forced labor.
Google, Apple, and Temu did not respond to inquiries by publication time.
The minister said Temu’s business practices would introduce “unhealthy competition.”
“We’re not here to protect e-commerce, but we protect small and medium enterprises. There are millions we must protect,” he said.
Small businesses make up a large portion of Southeast Asian economies, contributing to 40 percent of GDP, according to consulting firm YCP.
Indonesia’s e-commerce industry is set to expand to about $160 billion by 2030 from $62 billion in 2023, according to a report by Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, and consultancy Bain & Co.
In Indonesia, 99 percent of businesses are small, and Indonesia is the biggest e-commerce market in the region. Thailand, the second largest, saw Temu launch in July.
Authorities say they have not yet seen transactions by Indonesians on the Temu app, and the move is a preemptive one.
