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[00:00:00]

Let's carry on with the top business stories and go to Indonesia, where the social media app TikTok has struck a joint venture deal with the tech giant, GoTo, to restart its online shopping business in the country. The firm are owned by China's ByteDance, plans to invest over one and a half billion dollars in Indonesia's biggest e-commerce platform. Well, let's talk to Katie Silver about this. She's in our Asia business hub. Hello to you, Katie. So TikTok on the move. Tell us more. That's right.

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And for TikTok or that parent company, ByteDance that you mentioned, it's basically something of a recovery plan. They already were operating in Indonesia, but they faced regulatory hurdles back in September, October. And this is their way of trying to get back into this very big market. So as you mentioned, it's a joint venture with Go-to, and they are basically something of an Uber here in Southeast Asia, particularly here in Singapore. We use them for ride hailing. But in Indonesia, they have a very big, fast, growing market and operation when it comes to both food and grocery deliveries. So Indonesia, as I say, it's the largest retail market here in Southeast Asia, a huge dollar potential that TikTok wants a piece of. So as part of this deal, one and a half billion dollars, they'll get a three-quarter stake in this platform that's going to run on the app. And as I mentioned those regulatory hurdles, basically we saw in September, Dukata choosing to ban any social media companies from having any direct payments or taking any direct payments for any e-commerce transactions. It was seen as quite protectionist, particularly to both protect the likes of go-to big e-commerce giants that have started and grown in Indonesia, as well as the small and medium enterprises that sell on these platforms.

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We understand this deal is likely to be approved. And as I say, Indonesia, a huge market, almost 300 million people. And for TikTok or ByteDance, it's really seen as a practice ground for their TikTok shop, their attempt to diversify away from just making money from social media and moving into e-commerce. What they want to see is success in Indonesia, success in Southeast Asia, and that they might then take this model and operate it in, for example, the US as well as Europe.