TikTok

TikTok's Southeast Asia doubled gross merchandise value (GMV) year-on-year to $45.6 billion in 2025, driven by strong momentum in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, which recorded the fastest growth rates among all markets.

TikTok has forecasted that Asia Pacific (APAC)'s creator commercial contribution to reach $1.2 trillion by 2030, up 1.4 times from 2025.

TikTok, the subsidiary of the China-based tech firm ByteDance, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Center of Digital Transformation under Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to boost the country's digital ecosystem.

Indonesia said it has suspended TikTok's registration status as an electronic system provider after it failed to hand over all data relating to the use of its live stream feature, though the social media app was still accessible to users on Friday.

“TikTok was very slow in providing information to PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police), to the point that I had to call TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to inform him, 'this is a crime that's being committed and your organisation is very slow', Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said.

As TikTok has become a go-to platform for trusted insights, brands are discovering the value of collaborating with diverse creators—from low-key reviewers to dynamic personalities—through TikTok’s Creator Marketplace.

In the near term, TikTok’s return to U.S. app stores may feel like a reprieve for ByteDance, the platform’s creators, and millions of loyal users. Yet the fundamental tension - between a Chinese-linked enterprise and American lawmakers skeptical of foreign data harvesting - remains unresolved. 

The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) has on Wednesday approved a 126.8 billion baht ($3.77 billion) data hosting project by leading global video content platform TikTok, and a 3.25 billion baht ($96.61 million) cloud services project by Thailand-based cloud services firm focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) applications Siam AI.

Tech firms WeChat and ByteDance (TikTok) have successfully obtained their licenses to operate in Malaysia, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said Wednesday.

A source close to the Malaysian branch of the company told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) that more than 500 employees were terminated.