TikTok e-commerce is heating up in Southeast Asia, how long is it before the outbreak?

According to the South China Morning Post, TikTok Shop has recently launched a series of promotions in Malaysia and Singapore to accelerate its expansion plans in Southeast Asia. So far, Southeast Asia has become the largest geographic coverage of TikTok's e-commerce business. And this may be related to the re-examination of its data privacy policy and the difficulty of its application in the European and American markets.

According to TK's previous report, TikTok e-commerce will start a week-long "8.8 Sale" promotion from this Thursday, which is also the first big promotion on the Singapore site . In addition to local merchants in Singapore, Chinese sellers who are keen to explore overseas markets will also benefit from this. The campaign provides consumers with free shipping and coupons with discounts of up to 88%. It is recommended that merchants participating in the promotion broadcast live in English, cater to the local culture of Singapore, and publish short videos with special tags. For details, please refer to the report "Explosive Order Guide! TikTok Shop Singapore's first big sale starts in August! 》

In addition, TikTok e-commerce recently launched a similar campaign in Malaysia. Chinese merchants are invited to participate in a 12-day promotion - "Sama Sama! Hot Sale!" - which starts on July 25 and ends on August 5. Merchants are advised to use special tags to increase online traffic for fashion, home, cosmetics and electronics. They also benefit from lower shipping costs and discount coupons from TikTok, livestreaming for at least an hour a day during the event. See the report "Quick Look! TikTok Shop’s first cross-border promotion in Southeast Asia is coming”

TikTok Shop, which initially launched in Indonesia and the UK early last year, has expanded its operations to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. This makes Southeast Asia the largest geographic reach for TikTok's e-commerce activity.

Compared to the platform's experience in the West, the move reflects TikTok's desire to shift its e-commerce to the region, especially the thriving economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

According to the ASEAN Secretariat, China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner since 2009, accounting for 18% of ASEAN's total trade in 2019. Since 2020, the epidemic has accelerated the development of online shopping in overseas markets, and China's cross-border e-commerce industry has achieved explosive growth. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, China's cross-border e-commerce exports will increase by 40.1% year-on-year in 2020 and 15% in 2021.

Compared with the accelerated development of the Southeast Asian market, TikTok e-commerce is somewhat "unacceptable" in the European and American markets.

In June of this year, TikTok’s British e-commerce team set off a wave of departures. One of the main reasons was that TikTok’s “996” work model was “unacceptable” in the UK. See the report for details: "Volume 996 to the UK, TikTok executives: Maternity leave should not be provided"

Adding fuel to the fire, remarks by a TikTok European head of e-commerce that "companies should not offer maternity leave" angered employees again, and the criticism continued.

Still, the TikTok Shop promotion in the UK will continue. From June 27th to July 3rd, TikTok Shop UK held a summer promotion event. The official not only posted a dazzling record, but also stated that it will continue to carry out marketing activities, including Black Friday in November and December 12th. month of Christmas shopping season.

TikTok, which has more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, also faces strict scrutiny of its data privacy policy.

Commissioners of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publicly asked Apple and Google in June to remove TikTok from their app stores over data security concerns. For details, see the report: "TikTok or is it forcibly removed by the US FCC? ! 》

Australian cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 last month accused TikTok of collecting "too much" user data.

In response to concerns about data security, TikTok has also taken a number of countermeasures . For example, the appointment of new security director Kim Albarella (Kim Albarella) as the head of the global security team; the migration of US user information to the US technology company Oracle's servers.