China’s social media platform TikTok and Indonesia’s tech group GoTo will carry out a trial e-commerce partnership for several months as regulators assess its impact on small merchants in the Southeast Asian country, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting Indonesia’s trade minister.

“We will give a three to four months period for trial because technology is not an easy thing. Maybe efforts to perfect it would be needed,” Indonesia’s Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said at an event kicking off the partnership at a national online shopping festival called “Beli Local Initiative”.

“The main purpose (of the trial) is to help sellers… so they… can run their business again (after suspension of TikTok Shop),” he said.

TikTok said on Monday it agreed to spend $840 million to buy most of GoTo’s e-commerce unit Tokopedia after Indonesia banned online shopping on social media platforms in September, citing the need to protect small businesses and users’ data.

The two firms said their partnership will commence on Tuesday with a pilot period carried out in close consultation with and supervision by relevant regulators.

Zulkifli also said the ministry will audit and assess the partnership after the trial period, adding the regulation is aimed at protecting small businesses which employ 90 percent of the country’s workforce, the report added.

TikTok has been looking to translate its 125 million user base in Indonesia into a significant source of e-commerce revenue, as the country’s e-commerce gross merchandise value is forecast to more than double to $160 billion by 2030.

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