Nabiila Azzahra, Antara, Han Revanda Putra, Oyuk Ivani Siagian, Petir Garda B, Jakarta – The Ministry of Cooperatives and Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is trying to remove Temu, a marketplace owned by a Chinese company, from online application stores in Indonesia. The Temu application is available at Android and iOS application stores in the country.

"It is not yet operational, but is already available (in app stores)," said a special staff at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Fiki Satari, on Monday, October 7, 2024.

Temu is an online shopping site operated by the Chinese e-commerce company, PDD Holdings. The company offers large discounts for its products, which are often shipped directly from factories in China to consumers in various countries.

A number of ministries have tried to prevent the shopping site from operating in Indonesia. However, according to Tempo's monitoring, the Temu application is available for download on the App Store and Play Store in Indonesia.

Fiki said that the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs will hold another meeting with the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, and the Ministry of Investment this week to discuss the development of the digital economy, including Temu.

He emphasized that the Temu application is not yet operable, and the ministry will attempt to remove it from application stores, including the App Store and Play Store. "We will try to take it down from the App Store and Play Store," he said.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Trade said there has been no application from Temu for a permit to operate in the country thus far. Director General of Domestic Trade, Moga Simatupang, said Indonesia has a Ministerial Regulation No. 31 of 2023 that protects domestic trade against e-commerce.

Since September 2022, Temu has tried three times to register its trademark in Indonesia, as revealed by Fiki a few days ago. Even on July 22, 2024, Temu re-submitted its registration to the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

Fiki said the registration fell through due to an Indonesian company with a similar name and classification.

To date, said Fiki, the Temu application has entered the United States and Europe and is starting to expand to Southeast Asia, such as Thailand and Malaysia. Thus, the government must continue to monitor Temu to prevent it from entering Indonesia.

Minister of Communication and Informatics, Budi Arie Setiadi, previously affirmed that the government would not grant a permit to Temu. According to the minister, Temu negatively impacts micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) due to its disruptive business model.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1925839/indonesian-govt-moves-to-remove-temu-from-app-store