TikTok To Invest Billions Of Dollars In Southeast Asia, CEO Claimed

Short video app TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, said it would invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia over the next few years, as it doubles down on the region amid intensifying global scrutiny over its data security. Southeast Asia, a region with a collective population of 630 million — half of them under 30 — is one of TikTok’s biggest markets in terms of user numbers. Chew said content on its platform is becoming more diversified as it adds more users and expands beyond advertising into e-commerce, allowing consumers to buy goods through links on the app during livestreaming. TikTok has 8,000 employees in Southeast Asia, and 2 million small vendors selling their wares on its platform in Indonesia, the region’s biggest economy, he added. TikTok facilitated $4.4 billion of transactions across Southeast Asia last year, up from $600 million in 2021. Its investment plan comes as the Chinese-owned company faces scrutiny from some governments and regulators because of concerns that Beijing could use the app to harvest user data or advance its interests. TikTok has repeatedly denied that it has ever shared data with the Chinese government and has said the company would not do so if asked. The app has not faced major bans on government devices in Southeast Asia, but it has been under scrutiny over its content. Indonesia presented one of its first major global policy challenges in 2018, after authorities briefly banned TikTok for posts they said contained “pornography, inappropriate content and blasphemy.” In Vietnam, regulators said it would probe TikTok’s operations in the country because “toxic” content on the platform poses a threat to its “youth, culture and tradition.”