[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] ByteDance, the parent company of the video service platform TikTok, is accelerating its push into the Southeast Asian market.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in Hong Kong on the 23rd, ByteDance has launched a seller-exclusive app on TikTok aimed at targeting the Southeast Asian e-commerce market.
Developed at TikTok's Singapore headquarters, this app allows sellers who trade goods through e-commerce to easily manage their TikTok online stores. Sellers can conveniently handle all e-commerce related tasks via their mobile phones, including seller registration, product management, order management, returns and refunds management, promotion management, customer service, data analysis, and campaign registration.
The Chinese tech giant ByteDance unveiled this app ahead of founder Zhang Yiming's visit to Singapore last week. ByteDance has recently been strengthening its operational capabilities in the region to establish Singapore as a base for its Southeast Asian market strategy.
In October, the company announced plans to make Singapore a hub for its "Wellness Hub" service. Wellness is a combination of well-being and fitness, meaning a happy and healthy life.
Meanwhile, the United States is strongly monitoring TikTok for security reasons. The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a ban on TikTok during the Donald Trump administration but lifted the sanctions last June.
The decision to lift the sanctions followed President Joe Biden's revocation of former President Donald Trump's executive orders banning the use of TikTok and WeChat within the United States.
President Biden also withdrew the executive order issued by former President Trump in January, just before leaving office, which banned transactions involving eight other communication and financial technology applications created by Chinese companies, including Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Instead, President Biden has instructed the Department of Commerce to monitor the impact of software apps linked to China on U.S. national security.
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