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Indonesia entrepreneurs cash in on TikTok live selling spree

TikTok livestreamer Christine Febriyanti sells colorful garments on TikTok, contributing to the app’s booming shopping trend in Indonesia.

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1 year ago

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JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesian live streamer Christine Febriyanti stood in a room crammed with clothes in Jakarta, hawking colourful garments to hundreds of viewers on a TikTok Livestream for a local fashion brand.

“For the Vitamin C kind of girls, you’ll fulfil all of your nutrient needs with these orange pants,” the 25-year-old told the sales session.

Her pitch is part of a clamour for TikTok shopping in Indonesia, where users spent more money on the app than anywhere else in Southeast Asia over the past year.

The region is a bright spot for TikTok, owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, following months of intense scrutiny in the United States and other nations over users’ data security and the company’s alleged ties to Beijing.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew announced plans last week to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, where it counts 325 million users, of whom 125 million are in Indonesia.

As TikTok Shop grows in popularity, with Indonesians buying more than a third of goods sold in Southeast Asia over the past year, entrepreneurs are flocking to the platform to promote a range of tech, fashion and homemade products.

They are drawn to TikTok’s e-commerce features that allow them to sell through live streams or open online stores.

Febriyanti’s 20-strong online retail employer Monomolly reported a 30 per cent increase in revenue since kicking off a TikTok livestream drive last year, according to spokesperson Nadya Paramitha.

The platform’s algorithm has jumpstarted the company’s business, according to employees.

It has allowed sellers to “reach new markets randomly” instead of relying on interest-based search results on rival apps, said TikTok sales manager Chelvyana Onggo Winata.

Cookies and entertainment

It isn’t just companies that are using the platform.

DIY home streamers Panji Made Agung and his wife Astari Gita used to rely on their families to survive.

But they now sell as many as 1,000 cookie jars a month through TikTok livestreams, making 25 million rupiah (US$1,700).

Their viewers and sales ramped up because of their personalities, said Gita, who often flirts with her husband and makes him feel uncomfortable on camera.

“We discovered selling products alone would not work. It has to touch people’s emotions. It has to be entertaining,” Gita said.

“They like our real-life humour as a couple and Agung being awkward.”

TikTok Shop has capitalised on the Indonesian market, amassing more than two million sellers since it launched in 2021.

It takes one per cent commission and a charge of 20,000 rupiah (US$0.13) for every item sold, building a growing market share against more established and bigger rivals.

Indonesia represented 42 per cent of TikTok’s US$4.4 billion regional gross merchandise value (GMV) last year, according to Singapore-based consultancy Momentum Works.

‘Virtual conversation’

Online shopper Aldi Alfarabi said he wasn’t looking to spend money while scrolling through TikTok live streams, but he often stumbled on items that took his fancy, such as a dinosaur backpack he recently bought.

“There is an engaging interaction through the virtual conversation,” said the 29-year-old from Jakarta.

“You can see exactly what you are buying.”

Experts say TikTok’s Indonesia strategy is catching on with shifting shopping habits as younger customers demand more engaging experiences to open their wallets.

“Indonesia’s digital market is dominated by Generation Z,” said Bhima Yudhistira, an analyst from Jakarta’s Center of Economic and Law Studies.

“As they are more adaptive to new things, the market patterns change swiftly.”

So Southeast Asian online shopping — pulled along by Indonesia — is only going one way, he said, growing into what is predicted to become a $35 billion market next year.

That’s only good news for sellers like Agung and Gita.

“We asked our family to stop helping us. Now we can buy food and diapers for our child with our own money,” said Gita.

“We can also have fun a little bit.”

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

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1 year ago

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26 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

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1 year ago

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25 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

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