Jakarta.  E-commerce giant Tokopedia said it now has over 21 millions of registered sellers after a merger with TikTok Shop, the online shopping platform of the social media app. 

Earlier this year, Tokopedia finished integrating its systems with TikTok Shop, resulting in the Shop-Tokopedia brand. 

Almost all of the sellers are local brands, according to Nuraini Razak, the e-commerce communications director at Shop-Tokopedia, told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday. The company, however, does not set any target on how many sellers they are planning to reach by the end of this year. 

“I have never really set a target on the number of sellers or profit the company should have. But in 2019, there were approximately 6 million sellers. It takes 2 years to get 1 million sellers, and now we have 21 million sellers,” Nuraini said. 

“And I think this shows that entrepreneurs today are more aware how it is easier to start a business online as they don’t have to rent a place,” Nuraini said.

The Tokopedia-TikTok merger came after Indonesia banned social media apps from running e-commerce activities as means to protect Indonesian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Late last year, TikTok announced it had struck a deal with the tech conglomerate GoTo, a merger of Tokopedia and ride-hailing company Gojek. Under this deal, TikTok Shop Indonesia will merge its business with that of Tokopedia. TikTok will also hold a controlling stake in this enlarged entity. TikTok also said at the time it would invest over $1.5 billion in the enlarged entity over time.

Indonesia is home to 65.5 million MSMEs. These businesses serve as Indonesia’s economic backbone, making up 61 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), data shows.