“Tokopedia has ’lost its soul’ and been ‘reduced to just another generic Chinese marketplace.’”
ByteDance paid $840 million for a majority stake in Tokopedia after Indonesia banned TikTok Shop to protect local businesses. The merged platform then hemorrhaged sellers, with at least 2,500 employees laid off and merchants reporting revenue drops over 50%. Thousands migrated to Shopee because TikTok forced them into video content creation and influencer-style marketing instead of traditional product listings. ByteDance took a functioning local marketplace that people trusted and turned it into a content algorithm that nobody asked for.