Could the TikTok-GoTo deal signal the end of Shopee’s reign in Indonesia?

Opening Bell 🔔 is Tech in Asia’s free newsletter that brings you the biggest news and latest trends around Asia’s publicly listed tech companies. [Read from your browser]( Opening Bell 🔔 Welcome to the Opening Bell! Delivered every Monday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and latest trends on Asia’s publicly listed tech companies. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Written by Peter Cowan  Journalist  Hello {NAME} I'm not much of a dealmaker. Whether I’m making a trade in my fantasy football league or I’m buying vegetables at a local market in Hanoi, I can’t shake the feeling that the other side is getting the better end of the bargain. But at some point, I suppose you just need to swallow your fears and make a deal, no matter what lingering questions you’re left with. Short-video platform TikTok and Indonesian super app GoTo (GOTO, IDX) made a blockbuster deal last week, with the former securing a controlling stake in the latter’s ecommerce arm, Tokopedia. So who won this deal? Of course, it’s still too early to say for sure, but some of the analysts that my colleagues Miguel and Huong spoke to say TikTok may have edged it. The deal, after all, will bring TikTok Shop back to a lucrative market after a months-long ban and arm it with the infrastructure it previously lacked. GoTo doesn't really lose out here as it’s managed to offload a hefty chunk of a loss-making business. It can now focus on its financial services and on-demand segment. But Sea Group (SE, NYSE), whose ecommerce unit Shopee dominates the Indonesia market, is almost certain to feel some pain as competition is about to heat up. Dramatically. Opening Bell will take a short break for the Christmas and New Year holidays, so there will be no newsletter on December 25 or January 1. We’ll return to your inbox on January 8. Happy holidays! -- Peter  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIG STORY [TikTok Shop gets winning hand in Indonesia via Tokopedia mega deal]( Acquiring a 75% stake in Tokopedia puts TikTok Shop in a better position to dominate the country's ecommerce scene, analysts say. ---------------------------------------------------------------  3 TRENDS TO KEEP EYE ON Hot stocks, earnings reports, restructuring, pressure from activist investors, and more. 1️⃣ Make them an offer they can’t refuse: The feud between Temu and Shein escalated another notch last week, as the former sued the latter again in the US. The lawsuit, filed in a District of Columbia court, alleges that suppliers who have worked with Temu were subjected to [“Mafia-style” intimidation]( from Shein. The PDD Holdings-owned (PDD, NDAQ) firm didn’t accuse its rival of making suppliers sleep with the fishes, but it did say that Shein “falsely imprisoned” merchants in its offices for hours and threatened them for providing services to Temu. In November, Shein confidentially [filed]( for a US listing that could be worth US$90 billion. The company earned [more revenue]( in 2022 than retail fashion giants H&M, Gap, and Uniqlo. 2️⃣ Make way for India: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India looks set to become the world’s seventh-largest stock exchange, [overtaking]( the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in the process. Share prices on the NSE have surged in recent months, thanks to strong earnings and analysts’ optimism about the future of India’s economy. Share prices on the Hong Kong bourse, however, have fallen amid the Chinese economy’s struggles. India is the world’s fastest-growing big economy, according to the International Monetary Fund. The nation’s economy is set to expand by 6.3% this year. 3️⃣ Jensen Huang: The AI tour: Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The backpacking trip of a lifetime? Taylor Swift’s next tour stops? Not quite, but they’re countries that Nvidia (NVDA, NDAQ) CEO Jensen Huang [visited recently]( to drum up business for the firm. It might be more accurate to say that the leaders of the four countries were courting Huang, though. All of them want a slice of the chip manufacturing pie that having Nvidia in their countries would bring. Nvidia’s semiconductors are essential to power the supercomputers on which the AI revolution is built. The company passed the US$1 trillion market capitalization mark this year, largely driven by the explosive growth of AI tech.  2 EYE-POPPING NUMBERS Tech in Asia scours the internet to bring you head-turning numbers from the world of business. - [US$1.8 billion]( The amount of capital that Alibaba (BABA, NYSE) injected into its subsidiary Lazada this year. The ecommerce giant is facing increasingly fierce competition in Southeast Asia from the likes of TikTok and Shopee. - [15%]( The percentage of teens in the US that are “almost constantly” on Alphabet’s (GOOGL, NDAQ) YouTube and ByteDance’s TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center study. It also found that Meta’s (META, NDAQ) Facebook is used by just 33% of teens, down from 71% in 2014 to 2015.  THE ONE YOU DIDN'T SEE COMING We spotlight the story that had everyone talking and social media buzzing during the past week. Changing of the guard?: How many things do Richard Liu and Jack Ma have in common? They both founded companies that have become titans of China's ecommerce scene, and they’re both worried about keeping up with the Joneses. Liu issued a [rallying cry]( for JD.com (JD, NDAQ) staff last week, which echoed what Ma said to his staff earlier this month in the face of stiff competition. After an employee lamented JD.com’s various problems on an internal forum, Liu jumped into the comments section to voice his agreement, saying there would be “no way out” if the firm fails to change. Rivals PDD Holdings and ByteDance have been eating into JD.com’s ecommerce market share. The company's shares have also fallen by more than 50% this year. Ma’s Alibaba has suffered similarly at the hands of the upstarts. It’s fair to wonder if the days of being on top of the food chain are coming to an end for these two apex predators.  That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to our preference center at the bottom of this email. Happy investing and see you next week! Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Kindly do not construe any such information as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. 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