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Chew said at an event held in Indonesia that TikTok's
content is becoming more diversified as it adds more users and expands into
e-commerce. TikTok is owned by China's ByteDance.
Southeast Asia is one of TikTok's biggest markets in terms
of user numbers. But the platform has yet to translate the large user base into
a major e-commerce revenue source as it faces fierce competition from bigger
rivals of Sea's Shopee, Alibaba's Lazada and GoTo's Tokopedia.
TikTok's e-commerce platform lets consumers purchase goods
through links on the app during livestreaming.
Chew said TikTok has 8,000 employees in Southeast Asia, and
2 million small vendors who are selling their wares on its platform, without
elaborating further.
Meanwhile, TikTok is facing calls from US lawmakers and
state officials to ban the app nationwide over concerns about potential Chinese
government influence over the platform. Recently, a bipartisan group of six
senators and two members of the House of Representatives introduced legislation
to protect Americans' data from being used by US adversaries.
The bill aims to address concerns about the data of
Americans using foreign-owned social media apps like TikTok. Senate Finance
Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, a Democrat, said the bill "would turn off
the tap of data to unfriendly nations, stop TikTok from sending Americans'
personal information to China, and allow nations with strong privacy
protections to strengthen their relationships." © Reuters