Cross-border e-commerce platform Temu, a sister app to China’s Pinduoduo, has been ordered to halt its operations in Vietnam, sources close to the company revealed on Thursday, according to a report from Chinese media outlet Yicai. Chinese e-commerce platforms have faced similar regulatory challenges in the Southeast Asian nation this year. Temu is currently in talks with the Vietnamese government to resolve the issue.
Temu launched its Vietnam site in October. The Vietnamese authorities required all cross-border e-commerce platforms to complete registration by the end of November, with a warning that failure to comply could lead to app suspensions and domain restrictions. According to Metric’s Q3 2024 report, the Vietnamese market’s top five e-commerce platforms—Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, Tiki, and Sendo—have a combined monthly transaction volume of VND 25.3 trillion ($1 billion).
E-commerce companies are facing increasing regulatory pressure across Southeast Asia. Governments are raising requirements on cross-border e-commerce, setting a raft of new policies in areas such as information disclosure, market competition, and consumer protection. In October 2023, Indonesia’s TikTok Shop was shut down due to a new regulation. [Yicai, in Chinese]
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