LIVE: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew makes remarks in Indonesia

And related to the assembly point, in emergency situations, please do not use the elevator. The staff will standby at the ground floor. You should use the nearest staircase and please follow the exit sign which will lead you to the assembly point. We are at the Grand Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place, Level 4.

Our assembly point is located at the tunnel between this building and our building. Today we are not conducting any drill, so please consider our alarm ringing seriously. Thank you for your attention.

Ladies and gentlemen, please kindly rise for the arrival of Mr. Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok. And we would like to also welcome Bahlil Lahadalia, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment of the Republic of Indonesia. And also welcome His Excellency Ambassador Hun Sen, Chair of Board of Trustees of the ASEAN Foundation and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Cambodia to ASEAN. To Mr. Chew and Mr. Hun Sen, please make your way to your seat. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for Indonesia's national anthem, Indonesia Raya.

Ladies and gentlemen, you may be seated. Thank you.

Cause you need someone to lift you up, yeah, make right all the things you've done. Cause on your own you never know, you never know if you believe you can move the highest mountains across the greatest oceans, walk across the water. Believe you can move the highest mountains across the greatest oceans, walk across the world. If you believe you can move the highest mountains across the greatest oceans, walk across the world. Walk across the world if you believe.

Hello, good morning Jakarta! Can we hear it again? Good morning everyone! That's what I mean, I love the energy. So I would like to welcome you to the first ever TikTok Southeast Asia Impact Forum 2023. Let's give a big round of applause for this milestone! Yes indeed, we love it. So I just can't help to comment, you look very good Mr. Chew by the way, that batik and His Excellency, very dashing in that gentleman style. And once again, thank you for all of you and also for those of you who come across from Southeast Asia to Jakarta, you made it today. So today we are going to be looking at and witnessing a closer look of what TikTok has done for Southeast Asia within the past years, the past six years actually, and what are there in the horizon, in the future for all of us. And as we welcome everyone here now, on behalf of TikTok, I would like to thank our partners as well, merchants, creators, and media friends from all across Southeast Asia for joining us in this wonderful opportunity. My name is Rahma Alas, simply call me Alia. And just a little bit of a background of today's event, the leading destination for short-form video, TikTok. Everyone knows TikTok has been the home for creators all over the world to share the creative self-expression that nurtures authentic, entertaining content. And the diversity of experiences, communities, and content builds connection and understanding through the shared language of video. So people gravitate on TikTok because it's just so entertaining. I see a lot of content creators from private entities and from public, government as well, and maybe consumers like I am. So welcome once again. And for the very first time ever, TikTok will launch a report titled 'The TikTok Effect: Accelerating Southeast Asia's Businesses, Education, and Community'. Now if you're wondering what is this, so this report is highlighting how creativity and joy have sparked across Southeast Asia and the growth and also increasing economic opportunities, broadening access to education and self-improvement, to creating a stronger sense of belonging for everyone in the community. All right, so ladies and gentlemen, enough for me to say now, I would like to welcome TikTok's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Shou Chew, for joining us on the stage.

Thank you, thank you very much Mr. Chew for your speech. And now ladies and gentlemen, it was very exciting to see how Southeast Asia has been one of the regions with the fastest growing digitalization towards now digital economy and now we want to make a bigger impact even. But I kind of miss the dancing and the singing on TikTok, but now we can also learn, we do businesses, we do everything on TikTok, so that's really great. And now ladies and gentlemen, I would like to give the honor to Bahlil Lahadalia, our Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment of the Republic of Indonesia for the keynote speech.

Good morning to all of us here and especially to CEO TikTok. So, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN Economic Community, Satvinder Singh, His Excellency Ambassador Hun Sen, His Excellency Ambassador Bounnang Chanthachok, Permanent Representative of Lao People's Democratic Republic to ASEAN, and also His Excellency Ambassador Leong, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Singapore to ASEAN, and His Excellency Ambassador Aung Myo Min, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar to ASEAN. I'm very happy to be here this morning and especially with Shou because we met before in my office. So to all of you, our friends, Indonesian and member of ASEAN, Indonesia is the chair of ASEAN this year. But let me brief what happened in Indonesia today about our economy, about and everything. So that's I think being Indonesia, I asked the CEO of TikTok in Indonesia how many percent audience today and he said 80% Indonesian. So I like also you guys, young people of Indonesia, understand about your country because your country are doing pretty well the last four years. And our economy, ladies and gentlemen, you have to be proud to be Indonesian. I'm telling you as you can see the data later on. Indonesia, I think, is doing pretty good. Look at this, our growth, yes, very very good at 5.0% last year but we believe this year we can go up maybe to 5.3%. Our inflation, you look at this, is very low. This is the first time ever, so Indonesian inflation 4% and we are trying hard to bring down to below 4% by next, by this year. So this is first time in our history that Indonesia inflation around here, before it was like 6 or 7%. That's I think our inflation but now we are able to manage this one. And our also debt to GDP is like 40%. This happened because of the COVID. Before COVID around 33, 35, 30, yeah around that percent. So look at also the, how do you call, the stable portfolio performance. If you look at also, Indonesia doing pretty well, pretty well. But if you look at inflation here, here, sorry, inflation, some maybe Japan, Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, China better than us. China is the best. US, US like us, where is US here? Used to be like I think Shou understand this one, yeah, before maybe like 1% or below 1% but this time they are also struggling their inflation. But Indonesia quite doing fine in this area. So you young people of Indonesia have to be proud about your country. You know this is very important to understand. So people sometime talking here, of course we have problem here and there but in general we manage under leadership President Jokowi, Indonesia doing pretty well the last eight years. Now why it happened? If you look at the solid public approval, 82% toward President Jokowi. How do you get the approval rating like this? 82% while his term end up another one and half years. Normally like lame duck, you know, like maybe 50 or below 50% but this is 82%. Now how do we maintain this happening? To maintain the economic growth, we have basically five pillars of our economy. Number one, industrialization through downstreaming industry and digitalization and also interconnection and economic distribution and decarbonization. This one very very important for Indonesia and we are very huge in this one. I will come back to this issue later on. And you look at now strong economic resilience. This is before we are here, we just export nickel or yeah but today we are heading toward the direction and we have already battery recycling in Morowali. Yeah we have this one. By 2025 we can produce our own lithium battery. So gradually we established the, you know, the ecosystem of lithium battery in this country. Now before our export from nickel ore is like 4 billion US dollar 2017. If you move back to 2014 is like around 1 billion. After 8 years you look at last year it's nearly 34 billion. So that's I think the impact toward our economy. Even during COVID-19 we are able to manage our economy pretty well. Industrial downstreaming industry, this what enhance Indonesian external economic resilience. Look at the last 36 months, yeah, the last 36 consecutive months of surplus of trade. Never happened this before. This is because of the, yes indeed because of the also the commodity price but efficiency, digitalized I mentioned to you earlier and also about the downstreaming industry. So ladies and gentlemen, we are on the right track right now to be high income country by 2030, 35. That's I think our target. But 2045, I do hope that we can enter maybe slightly to be the top country. But we have to do it and focus to do it in order to achieve this target. Look at this, China trade balance with Indonesia used to be negative. I remember back to 2017 our trade negative with China around 26, 27 billion dollars but last year I think we are surplus. And also about current account, current account used to be negative, this is now positive the last two years. So ladies and gentlemen, young people of Indonesia, that's your country. Our country never happened like this before. But how do you maintain to focus this one for the next 20 years, 30 years, then we can enter the new era of Indonesia. And don't forget the solidarity. This is very important in order to achieve this target. Now there is more downstream industry potential. This one we don't touch this one yet. This also copper, this are tin, bauxite, this one and palm oil, seaweed, there are so many. And this one, this is iron steel, we can make this industry a lot. So there are so many potential for you young people of Indonesia to be like in this area, not only to the big one but the downstreaming of industry you can also do together. Indonesia digital economy is thriving as private and public sector push for digitalization. If you look at this, Mr. Shou, this is what happened in Indonesia 2019, 2022, you can see 67% growth. If you look at this one, Indonesia unicorn, that's a lot. This country is not, you know, see this Indonesian love very much this word, it means that you know, this banana republic or something like that. The government has digitalized, utilize over 100 million. Look at this, during COVID, dear Ambassador here, look at this one, 115 million. This number maybe you should correct this, 115 million. And now the, 15 million, this is also the Merdeka Belajar by Minister of Education, like 13, 14 million. Government embraces digitalization to provide public service in order to increase efficiency in government. So we make the government right now very transparent. This the goal of this create cost efficiency, transparent government spending through digitalization. So when you go through digitalization, no more communication face to face, so no more, you know, no more bribe. So then this I think can make your generation better than what happened today. This improved data quality in mining operation, this SIMBARA, that's also hike our tax revenues. Similar also, this is also for the cooking oil, they cannot play around anymore right now because we digitalize all this. Also improvement efficiency connectivity, used to be 25% cost of the, you know, the sea port, today down to 17%. But Singapore and Malaysia still better than us because they are around maybe 14%. And also the online single submission, that's I think the part of the government. Indonesia is committed to net zero and a clear plan to the decarbonization. This one very important, electricity, power, transportation, industry, building, others. That's I think our program. So ladies and gentlemen, we don't want to have any policy against the interest of the next generation of Indonesia. So for us this is very important. So my granddaughter, eldest granddaughter, she's already student in a college in Georgetown University in US. She's also reminding me time to time, 'Grandpa, don't make any policy against the interest of my generation.' Of course not. I'm not going to destroy the generation, the next generation of Indonesia. So I said to my some friend from US or Europe, they try to dictate us, 'Hey you have to do this, this, this, this.' I said no, you don't need to lecture us about environment because we have responsibility to the next generation of Indonesia. I'm not going to destroy my, you know, my grandchildren, child or granddaughter generation. I'm not going to do this one. So that's my promise. So you don't need to lecture us on this. We know what we're going to do. You advise us, we listen very much. But look at your country, I'll show you later on the data. Now the decarbonized power sector is reducing the, you know, coal dependency through transmission lines and renewable energy. Ladies and gentlemen, and next week we're going to groundbreaking aluminium smelter in Kalimantan. We get like, sorry excuse me, this is the following month, by August we going to groundbreaking the aluminium near Kalimantan. This could be 4 gigawatt. So we have 5.2 gigawatt of electricity, excess electricity. So by doing this one, starting next year we can tendering every single year 2.5 gigawatt renewable energy. Look at around the globe, I think Indonesia the one most expansive on this program. So 2.5 gigawatt of green energy like thermal, like hydropower, like wind, solar, etc. Because we don't have excess capacity anymore electricity. Indonesia, we push transition of EV. This one I encourage you to buy four-wheeler or two-wheeler EV, electric, because this good also for us, you know, make high quality in Jakarta better than today. Our target 10% population of the EV by 2030. And we give you kind of incentive here. And alternative fuel, leverage green and blue resources potential. I mentioned to you here, seaweed, we can do this one, palm waste, and there are so many things. If you manage this well, that's your generation to do it. There are so long way to go. Yeah, you don't need fight no more left for our natural resources. No, you have a lot of thing to do. And Indonesia has a large potential for nature-based solution, carbon sinking, which will further absorb emission naturally. We are very rich. We have 600,000 hectares of mangrove restoration for four years now, already 300 something. And by next year we can finish the 600,000 hectares. And we have like 3.4 million hectares of mangrove Indonesia. So your country, as I say, Indonesia is very rich. If you look at this one, nature-based carbon credit issue, this Indonesia, Peru, Colombia, Kenya, you are Indonesia, the best. Sometime we don't understand that Indonesia is so potential. We call it 'sakti', you know. So sometime you look down your own country. You know, some people, they don't understand about their own country. Indonesia also has a large potential to be a carbon capture storage. To all of you, look at ladies and gentlemen, young people of Indonesia, look at this one. Your country is so rich. We have estimated the 400 gigaton CO2 storage capacity in the oil and gas reservoir and saline aquifer. This one, the new one we discover. Yeah, we have a depleted reservoir here, here, there are so many. This country is so rich. How do we manage, make this country become so efficient? Nobody can beat us. I'm telling you honestly, it's my experience. I've been anywhere part of this country and globally. So you have to be proud. You study hard, maintain your heart good. Yeah, TikTok I think take the benefit of that. You know, now the user of TikTok Indonesia 125 million and they can go maybe easy to 200 million. The population of Indonesia 282 million. So that by 2030 we can go maybe to 300 million. So this country is very huge country. Nobody can play around Indonesia. This country is too big. I keep telling this one, leaning to any power globally. Yeah, maybe like 10 years ago you can look down Indonesia. Today don't ever try to look down Indonesia because we play the major player in this global. And this is also if you look at Indonesia, let back to again, sorry, Indonesia can be a CCS hub in the global south. So some of the CO2 you can inject here Indonesia and then you have to pay. And you guys young Indonesia can enjoy the fruit of this because this is also the kind of business. And Indonesia continue to strengthen interconnectivity by debottlenecking, making land transportation. That's what we're doing now. We are working very much on this. We've been concrete toll roads like this. This is 2014 but today is size you can see this one. And beyond land, Indonesia continues to connect the island through sea and air transport. This is I think we're doing this one. This is the budget we're doing. There are so many project that we can do in this country. Let's work hard but work with heart, yeah, very hard. And to work and also you have to build the teamwork, the good teamwork in your generation. Indonesia implements e-toll, e-toll and etc. You look at this one, we make it like this. Look at Indonesia, this is size of Indonesia. Maybe some of you don't understand, 7 hours 30 minutes from here to here, from Sabang to Merauke. This country is big country. Yeah, we have 12.7 million square kilometers. So this is 60, 70% ocean. We can grow seaweed anywhere around this country. And for even economic development throughout the nation, Indonesia need to support the macroeconomy in the smaller regions. That's make Indonesia different. Today we have 74,000 something villages in Indonesia. Every village since 8 years ago they get around 1 billion rupiah. So they can make economic circulation, economic in that village. You can see the village, they built around 38,000 kilometers street, village street, and the bridge, 1 something million bridges around in that villages. And also village market and also clean water just for their own desa. So the economic activities in that desa, in the village, also moving very very well. That make Indonesia quite stable compared to some other country even during the COVID-19. The last two years, Indonesia, the industrial park that moving used to be only 8% for instance in Morowali, now 73%. Halmahera 3% now 61%. So we are heading to be the industrial country in the next decade. From Jakarta to Nusantara, new capital. This is what happened today. You look at this one, used to be concentrated of our economy in Java Island and Sumatra, it's like 60%. But today we make it equal, eastern part and western part of Indonesia. Now let me, this one is very important slide to all of you ladies and gentlemen, young people of Indonesia. Our contribution to the carbon emission only 2.3 ton per capita. Let me repeat, only 2.3 ton per capita. And the baseline is 4.5 ton per capita. If you look at the other developed country like US, this here, it's like 14.7, Canada 15.3, and some other countries. So we have right basically to build coal-fired energy but we don't. We make early retirement of Cirebon like using the JETP program with the Just Energy Transition Partnership program. So that's the willingness of Indonesia to maintain the quality of environment in Indonesia. Indonesia is actively creating a platform for international cooperation. I mentioned JETP, carbon market, and Global Blended Finance Alliance. That's what we're doing today. We have become a global player in the next decade. The conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, current indicator show that Indonesia is on the right track to be high income country. And Indonesia has a concrete strategy to develop through industrialization, decarbonization, interconnection, digitalization, and of course economic distribution in order to bolster economic growth. That's what we are doing today. And in the last one, Indonesia welcomes strategic international cooperation in economic development. And that's why we very welcome TikTok to be in Indonesia, very welcome. And I think use TikTok, TikTok very important, yeah, for young people Indonesia especially. To be honest, because I like also the, I see the management of the TikTok, young people. There are a lot of young generation of Indonesia be part of the management. The CEO told me, you know, like 260 people of Indonesian right now working overseas on the TikTok program. So again, make a good business in Indonesia but don't enter politics please. Yeah, thank you very much and enjoy your day. And Bravo Indonesia, be proud to be Indonesia. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you very much Bahlil Lahadalia. Please kindly stay on stage because we want you to be one of the key players for the main event for today which is the launching. So now I'd like to give the opportunity to Mr. Chew once again to come up to the stage for the very first ever TikTok Effect: Accelerating Southeast Asia's Businesses, Education, and Community official launch. And also would like to invite Ambassador Hun Sen to also join us for the launching. And yes, let's give a big round of applause for all of the gentlemen. So all of you please kindly follow my instruction. So I have the privilege now to do some instructions to the VIPs. Yes, you've got the laser pointers right now, just be ready with that. So what we want you to do is just to point that laser pointer to the screen and just try to point, do not press anything yet, point at any dot that you see. It's difficult, it's dynamic, but yeah, that's the challenge. All right, so when you are ready, on my lead, everyone you're ready, press the button after this. On my count, let's do count together. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Let's give a big round of applause to TikTok for launching the first ever TikTok Southeast Asia Socio-Economic Impact Report. Congratulations for the launch. TikTok has connected everyday people globally and created real-world opportunities among its hundreds of millions of users across Southeast Asia. Moreover, our study on the impact on Southeast Asia shows that TikTok has become a part of the digital economy evolution by practicing these three main pillars. SMBs and creators were the largest impact contributors. They have grown their audience on the platform leading to increasing income. TikTok inspired learning and discovery by providing a window to the world for everyone. By allowing creators to share their authentic experiences, TikTok shows its diverse users that they are a part of the same community. As our community grows, TikTok's commitment in Southeast Asia's growth story also expands through a series of initiatives by supporting local SMB empowerment programs, broadening access to education, literacy, and self-improvement, and building communities for support and development. Thank you for joining TikTok and empowering people to reach their full potential. Together, let's bring more extraordinary impact to Southeast Asia. Once again, congratulations. All right, now I'd like to invite Bahlil Lahadalia, Ambassador, also Mr. Chew to go to the center stage because we're going to have the opportunity of photo session now. Okay, please have a big pose first and yeah, before the MOU, let's do the opportunity of photo session. And let's do it TikTok way, why don't we? Let's have a wefie, how about that? Okay, so now Bahlil Lahadalia and also Ambassador, please just face the screen because we're going to do wefie together with everyone here. Okay, everyone don't forget to smile, give your best biggest smile ever. Yes, those signs and the hairs. All right, 3, 2, 1. One more time, one more time, 3, 2, 1. All right, that's great. Thank you so much. Now Ambassador, sorry, you may return to your seat. But Bahlil and Mr. Chew, please kindly stay on stage. Bahlil Lahadalia, please kindly stay on stage for the official MOU signing. And now ladies and gentlemen, TikTok's Southeast Asia Socio-Economic Impact Report, we just witnessed already. And now let's move on to the signing of the MOU. For the first one, we have TikTok partnering Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Asosiasi Social Platform Usaha Social or PLUS, and Telkom to build evergreen growth hubs in rural villages and key economic centers across Indonesia by providing free internet access and training on essential digital skills. And for that we'd like to invite Bafa Fiwahid as the Head of Public Policy TikTok Indonesia come on stage and Ibu Nina Azhari, Head of Bureau of General Affairs, Law and Procurement of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia to also join us on the stage for signing MOU for the TikTok Jantara program for Indonesia. Kindly take the seat. And also Ibu... Yes, and also from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy witnessing this as well, Ibu, welcome as well to the stage. And now we are witnessing the signing of the MOU TikTok Jantara. If you have done signing, you may exchange the MOU document and have a picture together. All right, let's have a picture together and after that we can move a little bit to the front to have another better picture. Okay, yes, 3, 2, 1. Let's give a big round of applause for the first MOU, TikTok Jantara. All right, thank you for the signers, you may go to the side of the stage to the left side. But for Shou and also Bahlil, kindly stay on the stage on the center. Okay, Bahlil... And Mr. Shou, stay here and let's go to the second one. Okay, let's go to the next one. TikTok is committed to increasing climate literacy awareness and unleashing the power of platform to drive education on sustainability. Reflecting the centrality of these efforts in Thailand, TikTok will be partnering with a social enterprise, Kitkit, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in driving action among young people in Thailand to make sure everyday sustainable lifestyle choices. And this program is supported by Thailand's National Environmental Sustainability Goal and is aligned with the company's goal of achieving operational carbon neutrality by 2030. So for this, we would like to invite to the stage Mrs. Chalida Klomkliaw as the Head of Public Policy TikTok Thailand and Mr. Pipot Araknatakorn, founder of Kitkit, joining us on the stage to sign the MOU for Act for Change Climate Literacy Program for Thailand. And to witness this as well, would like to invite Mr. Anu Aman, Spokesperson of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to witness the MOU signing. Okay, the signing is happening now already, exchanging the document. And if you're done, yes, please raise the document for the photo opportunity. Let's do it together for a smile. And let's give a big round of applause everyone for the second signing of the MOU. Thank you signers, you may go to the left of the stage for the next, to wait for the next MOU and also for the photo session later on. And now let's go to the third MOU signing. TikTok has launched its Support Local program to empower micro and small businesses, particularly those in rural and provincial areas across Southeast Asia markets. In Thailand, TikTok will support the Ministry of Interior's One Tambon One Product or OTOP initiative and promote Made in Thailand products. Now this program aims to help OTOP merchants reach new digital consumers through TikTok and TikTok Shop. Okay, Mr. Wuttiphong Nakhonhun, Deputy Director General of Community Development Department from the Ministry of Interior of Thailand, also on the stage. Mrs. Chalida Klomkliaw is the Head of Public Policy TikTok Thailand for the One Tambon One Product program for Thailand. Let's give a big round of applause. All right, now thank you signers, you may go to the left of the stage. Now let's just move on to the next signing of the MOU. One Commune One Product. Similarly, the fourth MOU, TikTok will partner with Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under the One Commune One Product or OCOP program. This will support the livelihood of Vietnamese farmers, craft villagers, and small businesses across 63 provinces. And at the same time, this effort will help drive domestic tourism and preserve local traditional culture and heritage. So on the stage, Mr. Yen Lan as the Head of Public Policy TikTok Vietnam and Mr. Doan Chan Chan, Director of OCOP on Agritourism Department, Vietnam Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the stage signing the MOU. Give a big round of applause, big hands everyone, thank you so much. Thank you signers, you may go to the left of the stage. And we heard that you need to go to the next duty. Thank you so much for coming, we really appreciate you coming here today. And good luck for your next duty. Mr. Shou, don't go anywhere yet, we love you on the stage. I'm sorry. Okay, the last but not least, everyone, TikTok and ASEAN Foundation have entered a partnership to support youth-led social enterprises across 10 Asian countries through customized training and mentoring, facilitating to market, and seed grants. So for this, we'd like to invite Miss Helena L, Vice President of Public Policy TikTok, and His Excellency Ambassador Hun Sen, the Chair of Board of Trustees of ASEAN Foundation and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Cambodia to ASEAN, to showcase the collaboration document to affirm the partnership. And would like to also invite Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community, His Excellency Satvinder Singh, to be our witness as well as representative from both organizations establish the partnership together with Mr. Chew. Where's the big round of applause everyone, thank you. Okay, now I'm calling all the signers, please come to the center of the stage to have a photo opportunity together with the VIPs. VIPs, Mr. Shou will be in the middle. Mr. Satvinder, oh you don't want to join the photo session? Please, okay, just be spontaneous, you can use your own style, your own pose. Okay. All right, I think we're ready. Let me give a countdown to lead this photo session. Are you ready? Is that your best friend smile? All right, 3, 2, 1. Maybe with a different pose, why not this time?

If you have any, come on, be creative, Mr. Shou. Yes, show us something. A little bit of a push here for Mr. Shou. All right, this is like this. Okay, are we ready? Three, two, and one. Thank you very much. Big hands, everyone. Now please, you may be seated again. Go back to your seats.

And now I'd like to invite Mr. Chew, also Ambassador Anget, to proceed to the next ballroom to tour the booths set up by TikTok creators, TikTok Shop merchants, and Moonton Games and TikTok for Good. And for our guests, everyone here, we'd like to invite you to enjoy a coffee break so you'll feel refreshed. And we'd like to also inform you that our report, 'TikTok Effect: Accelerating Southeast Asia Businesses, Education, and Community,' is already available for download starting today. Please visit cimpact.co or feel free to scan the QR code showing on the screen. Where is it? Yeah, it's going to be showing on the screen. And also, just a kind of reminder.

Good day, media friends. Thank you for being here with us. I see familiar faces over here, and I would like to welcome every journalist also joining us online, virtually, in order to attend this media session. So, ladies and gentlemen, perhaps you already know, some of you I'm sure already joined the main event, and I would like to say welcome to the TikTok Southeast Asia Impact Forum media session. And as we have witnessed earlier, it is our first impact forum, and then we are actually launching a report that is titled 'The TikTok Effect: Accelerating Southeast Asia Businesses, Education, and Community.' And then if you also joined the main event earlier, you've heard and you've witnessed our commitment in 12.2 million investment to support local SMBs across Southeast Asia. And then together with us is Ms. Teresa Tan. She is the head of public policy for Southeast Asia, very much experienced in public policy. And then if I tell you the amount of experience, then we will reveal our age, so maybe let's not go there. But then again, she's the lady behind the report and also the lady behind making this initiative happen so that it can connect to a more resilient and also a better Southeast Asia. So without further ado, Teresa, thank you very much for joining me right now. Yeah, and then let's hear more about the report, about the initiatives, and then I'm sure we will also have many questions from the journalists. I would like to make a kind disclaimer first, ladies and gentlemen, and I apologize because we have many limitations, meaning that time is of the essence. We'll keep it very short and brief. We'll try our best to give as much time as we can for you. So Teresa, maybe we can start first. I'd like to understand better about the report because we heard that we launched a report, but maybe you can tell us more about the report and what are the findings in that report that we can highlight.

Thank you, Angin. I think first of all, really a very warm welcome to all media who flew in across Southeast Asia, and also, you know, nice to meet the media in Indonesia as well. Thank you for taking time this morning with us, and hope you enjoyed the ceremony just now. So to share the thinking behind the Southeast Asia, this first Southeast Asia socioeconomic impact report that we have done, I think what we have seen are, you know, different parts of the community, from our creators, from small businesses, from nonprofit organizations, benefiting from TikTok. And we asked ourselves, you know, why don't we take a look on how we have been benefiting these different parts of the community? And with that, you know, we surveyed users across Southeast Asia, you know, to find out what are the real-world impact that we have created in their lives. So a few big points that I want to make out of this report. Number one, I think we wanted to look on at how are we empowering livelihoods of our creators as well as small businesses. So one finding that we came out of this is basically we have empowered businesses to shift from traditionally offline marketing to online marketing to meet new consumers online. So you can see some of the statistics that we have from the report in our survey, like 79% of businesses that we have polled actually said that TikTok has helped them transition from offline to online so that they can expand their customer base to a larger group of online users. We have also helped people to find new income sources. So from the report, we talked to TikTok creators, and 93% of the creators we surveyed in the region say TikTok provides them a platform to monetize their skills and their experience. And when we look deeper, you know, more than 80% of TikTok creators boosted their incomes through features that we provide, such as TikTok Live as well as partnerships with brands. And you know, these are good new income sources for them. Another finding that we found is, as what Shou mentioned, you know, at the ceremony just now, TikTok started with song performance, dancing, and we are slowly moving towards, you know, having more educational content on the platform. And we do see more educators and learners coming on the platform. And we're asking ourselves, why do we ask them how have they been benefiting? And from there, we found that we have actually made learning on TikTok more accessible and relatable to our users. So from the findings, 90% of users who come to TikTok to learn are gaining new skills through content on the platform. And you know, we also found three in five surveyed say that TikTok made online learning more accessible to them. And the last point I want to make is on nonprofit organizations. We also brought them online. We talked to them because one thing that we wanted is how do we bring wellness content on the platform so that we can help the vulnerable users on our platform. And by bringing them on board, we actually managed to bring the health resources on board as well, so that any users who are looking for mental health support, you know, wellness support, these nonprofit organizations are together with us on the platform to make it, you know, more encouraging for them to seek help, you know, if they need any mental health support. So those are the findings from our report itself.

Those are really extraordinary findings, and I'm very happy as well to hear that and to be part of TikTok. And I apologize, ladies and gentlemen, I was so rude, I did not introduce myself. My name is Angin Tawan. I am the head of communications for TikTok Indonesia. But it's good that we know that we're part of the organization that is making such a positive impact, right, Teresa? But the question I think right now would be, what's the news? Like, I see that we signed five MOUs previously in the main event. We'd like to understand better, like, what are the upcoming initiatives that we are going to have? Because I'm sure we're happy we've been making an impact, but we're not going to stop here right now, right? Yes, maybe you can explain about that.

Exactly. So this report actually helped us to inform, you know, what's the next step for TikTok in terms of partnerships that we want to do with local governments, local non-governmental organizations. And this formed the, you know, pillar of the announcements that Shou made on stage today. So I would like to bring across the three points that we have launched today. So number one, I think Shou mentioned very clearly that more than 325 million people in Southeast Asia come to TikTok every month, and 15 million Southeast Asia businesses use the platform. So this is a responsibility that we take seriously. So how do we further, you know, build the community so that we can benefit more? I think Southeast Asia, one thing that we are very passionate about, Southeast Asia is about rural, provincial areas. And that's why some of the MOUs signing that you see today is helping to provide digital connectivity into villages in Indonesia and ensuring the villages, the small businesses, the micro sellers, the youth in these areas actually gain essential digital skills for the future. And what we're talking about, they can be content creators if they want to earn, you know, income revenues. They can be e-commerce sellers, you know, using TikTok Shop to grow their business and reach, you know, additional user base. They can also learn digital marketing skills. And while we are on it, you know, we're thinking why don't we also bring digital and financial literacy to users in these villages? Because, you know, in order for us to provide a good experience, they have to feel safe on the platform. So that forms the Support Local program that we are launching today across Southeast Asia. And a lot is also inspired by our pilot in Vietnam, where we supported the government in the One Commune One Product program. And this is across like 63 provinces across Vietnam. And it's really heartwarming to hear from my Vietnamese colleague that, you know, they entered the mountainous region to help the villagers there promote their local specialties like winter melons and plums to a larger user base. Yeah, so this is in the past not possible because they might not have access to digital opportunities, but because of TikTok Shop, you know, they're able to bring the local specialties. And that's why we are thinking about expanding it also to Thailand, to Indonesia. But connectivity is something that we want to hope to jointly solve together, you know, with the local telco here as well.

Yeah, perhaps last question for me before we open up Q&A session. But we've heard about the report, how we've been making an impact, and it's opening businesses, community, education as well. We've heard about the initiatives that we are doing, but I'm trying to understand what kind of an impact we really are making from the creators or our stakeholders' point of view, right? So I was wondering if you can tell us some case examples on how TikTok has empowered either creators or entrepreneurs in the region, and especially because when we're talking about Southeast Asia, it's very diverse. So just interested to know how is our approach around those areas.

Yeah, so if you get a copy of the report from Angin later, you'll realize that there are a lot of creators and small businesses featured in the report. From one of our creators that actually owns a crayfish farm in Cambodia, he started small but now he has 20 farms across, you know, Cambodia, and he's selling like 500 kg of crayfish. So very simple stories but very, very heartwarming. And you get to see that in our report itself on how we are empowering the creators and the small businesses. So, you know, other than that, you know, we also, Shou mentioned just now that more than 120 million people and 5 million businesses in Indonesia use TikTok, you know, to grow, to discover, and connect. And #SamaSamaBelajar hashtag was one, you know, that he emphasized that more than 100 billion, you know, video views showing, you know, educational-based content on TikTok. And Pandara Group that you hear from Shou just now as well, you know, like started with cleaning the river, sparked a youth volunteer movement, and, you know, more people are, you know, following and around Indonesia as well. So a lot of impact you're creating.

Yeah, these stories are really heartwarming, and especially if you have the chance to talk to the creators themselves, which you will have it after this media session today. So I would like to kindly urge you, if you would, to do so, to please meet our creators and hear their stories directly from them. So perhaps, Teresa, thank you very much. I think some of your key points is that we're happy that we know we're making an impact. We're part of the growth story in Southeast Asia. We are committing 12.2 million in our investment to support local SMBs, mainly in three pillars: economic, learning, and then also community pillars. And then we will continue to be part of Southeast Asia and grow together. Yeah. Okay, so I have the agency already helped me, and then we already have a pre-submitted question, so I'll read one first, and then we'll open the opportunity for all of you. The first pre-submitted question is from Compass and also CNA. The essence of the question is the same: What impact does TikTok have on the sales of MSME players as well as business owners in the property and financial education content sectors? And how does TikTok change the way SMBs market their products?

Yeah, so I would like to actually talk about the concept of TikTok Shop and what we mean by shop-ertainment and social commerce. I think what we heard from small, medium-sized businesses in the past is, you know, they may have listings on marketplaces, you know, but there is no, you know, direct traffic that actually brings, you know, users to their platform. So you can list all your products, but hey, you know, like you don't have marketing tools to actually bring users there. So how TikTok works or how TikTok Shop was born is actually to serve this problem statement that we heard from small, medium-sized businesses. And we already seen during the whole COVID-19 period they're already selling things online, but just that people couldn't check out their products because we haven't had the shop function. And now with TikTok Shop, they are able to do so. So we see the potential of shop-ertainment, social commerce, and combining, you know, content and commerce together in order to help our sellers grow. And that includes like live streaming and the various features that you can find on TikTok Shop.

Thank you. I see the lady over here raised her hand. So if the agency can help, and I think I'll give one question to the lady. Sorry, I don't wear my glasses. I'm so sorry to give the question, but you may start first. Kindly state your name and media, and please share the question.

Yeah, check, check. Okay, thank you. So my name is Uni Luis from IDN Times, a digital media platform targeting millennials and Gen Z. So we are one of the first media in Indonesia that adapted to TikTok, actually, because we are TikTok generation, even though I'm old. So first, congratulations for TikTok for the launch of the report. It's a very interesting and I think a very insightful report. The second one, I want to inform that in 2021, IDN Times collaborated with TikTok Indonesia to launch the campaign of Indonesia Brand Vaccine, #IndonesiaThereToBeVaccinated, where we published 34 videos from doctors in 34 provinces where they campaigned to persuade people to be vaccinated with the local language, because that's really important. That's why 34, because we have 34 provinces. It was, I think, in terms of the evaluation from TikTok Indonesia, quite a successful campaign. But my question is, I think, still related with the scope of the report, which is education and community. You know that next year, Indonesia has an election on February 14, and we can read anywhere that 2024 is a TikTok-dominated election everywhere. One of the first, very good examples in the Philippines, right? And also, I think, Malaysia, but the Philippines really gives a lot of examples where the current elected president actually successfully influenced Gen Z via TikTok, and that can, that will happen in Indonesia. So my concern is about the content moderation, because like any social media platform, TikTok is also prone to become the platform to distribute hoaxes and misinformation, and this is really dangerous, especially when there is an election, because Gen Z is there. TikTok has already beaten Google in terms of search among Gen Z. Gen Z is not searching in Google anymore, but in TikTok. So they will find the information via TikTok. There are 70 million population in Indonesia, probably 55% of them is going to be the first voter for our next election. So how TikTok moderates your content to make sure that only the falsehood, the hoaxes, and misinformation will not spread to the public, to the Indonesian public, I mean, to the whole world users of TikTok? And I'm concerned about the things in Indonesia because we are the country that is polarized by the election. So I want to know, I know you are the head of public policy, right? I know, Teresa, you will have an insightful answer. Thank you so much.

Thank you for the question. Yeah, thank you for the question. I think first of all, I would like to assure everyone here, we take elections integrity efforts very seriously on our platform. And if you look at our community guidelines, we have integrity and authenticity policies that do not allow misinformation on our platform that cause significant harm to the society. But I would like to say that we want to make sure that we engage different stakeholders within the ecosystem in order to make sure that this happens. So number one, how do we provide users access to authoritative information on the platform? So for elections, we worked with, you know, various elections commissions to make sure we put up an elections hub where people can get access to authoritative information. So if you were to produce a content that may be related to elections, you will get access to a label to the elections hub where you can get factual information about the election. So that's the first point, making sure that users get authoritative information. Second is making sure that we engage local fact-checking partners as well as fact-checking partners around the world who could help us in this whole process of verifying information. You know, and this requires, you know, us to work very closely with them as well as understanding the local social context, local social norms, in order to be able to act on the nuances of some of this misinformation content that may appear on the platform. So one thing that we do, if we are unsure of whether a particular content has been verified or not to be true, what we have done is making sure that, you know, it does not appear on the For You feed on TikTok, which is, you know, where people access the main information. That's one. And another is making sure that before a person shares an unverified content, we actually have a pop-up that asks the user, 'This content is actually unverified. Are you sure you want to share?' So there are a lot of these in-app features that we have built within the app to encourage our users to think before they share. So these are some of the measures that we wanted to put in to make sure we build the experience within the app. And last but not least, really partnering on digital and information literacy efforts. I mentioned just now, you know, while we are going into the villages to help with content creation, e-commerce, I think it's also a very, very powerful platform for us to talk about digital and financial literacy. Because as you go to the rural, as you said, you know, like more people need to be digital and information literate, and educational effort is key. And we partner with local nonprofit organizations, governments to make sure we reach a greater extent. And in countries like Malaysia, we also work with universities and schools to make sure that, as you say, we reach out to the younger voters who may be first-time voters and, you know, not sure where should they get information on. A lot of this effort we also proactively do it. So first of all, number one, making sure our platform is safe, that's our duty, okay? And we make sure we execute it against our community guidelines, building that in-app experience, something cannot be verified, pop-up, labels, access to authoritative information, make sure people think before they share. And then more larger scale off the platform, reach out to greater users across rural areas, provincial areas, universities to reach out to those who need digital and information literate information. So really hope we can all work together. I think it's not easy, every election is different, as we observe across, and we just need to make sure we are robust and work with all our partners to keep the platform safe.

Yeah, thank you, thank you, Teresa. And in the interest of time, this is for the last question, because otherwise we're not going to have enough time to discuss things with Shou as well. Shou is going to join us later on, ladies and gentlemen. The lady at the back, okay. Thank you very much. My name is Ana, I'm from AFP in Jakarta. It's very insightful that we got the numbers of Indonesia users and Southeast Asia users, but I think it will be more insightful if you could share with us, do you have the number of GMV figures in terms of TikTok Shop, particularly in Indonesia? And then, so, and then how is Indonesia's contribution to TikTok Shop in the world and Southeast Asia? Because I heard Indonesia is one of the largest TikTok users globally. It will be very insightful if you can share that to us. That will be the news. Thank you very much.

Yeah, so as Shou mentioned, you know, Indonesia is one of the first markets that, you know, we started TikTok Shop. And, you know, we are very proud that currently, you know, we have close to 2 million small sellers on the TikTok Shop platform, and they are growing well. And, you know, we wanted to make sure we expand and grow further to help the micro and small sellers on our platform. Yeah, so I think that's our commitment to go. And today you get all the figures that we are able to share. I think definitely, you know, over the years as we commit more to the Support Local program, we are able to help more of the local micro, small, medium-sized businesses, not just in the city area but rural areas. And I feel that, you know, we're able to create more impact there across the nation.

Yeah, thank you, Teresa, for being here with us. Round of applause for Teresa. Thank you very much for sharing the stage with me. And now I would like to proceed to the next session, and I think people are also going to be excited over here. I would like to go into the section that we called as the 'Meet the CEO.' So I would like to kindly welcome our CEO, Mr. Shou Chew, kindly join me on the stage. Thank you for being here with us, Shou. It's in the... Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you to our friends in the media for joining us at this event. We're very honored and pleased to have you here with us today. We understand you're very busy, so we truly appreciate your time for being here with us right now. How do you feel wearing batik, by the way, before we start with the conversation?

Okay, so perhaps we should chat a little bit before we give the opportunity to our journalist colleagues over here to ask questions to you. TikTok has become so big, Shou. You mentioned about from 100 employees to 8,000. How did we get here today?

And we also heard the commitment of the 12.2 million, which is very exciting as well. And as TikTok continues to expand globally, especially in this region, what would be the key strategies and initiatives the company is implementing to ensure the platforms remain relevant and successful, especially in the context that is so diverse like Southeast Asia?

In the spirit of talking about global interoperability and also deepening local context, Shou, I think you know that Indonesia is large and we have diverse user base on TikTok. And the election is coming. That's also some of the burning questions that the journalists and also media have over here. And this is not an experience that only Indonesia is encountering, but then again, the question is that how do we as a platform ensure the integrity during elections, not only in Indonesia but also around the world?

Thank you, thank you. And then as a father, I know you get these questions a lot, and this has come up repetitively, but it still keeps on coming up and people are still curious. But do you allow your children to watch TikTok?

Okay. And then as the CEO of TikTok, I imagine you scroll a lot on TikTok, and then sometimes we are curious what's in your For You feed. Maybe there's something from Southeast Asia?

Yes, every time somebody asks me about what I like about TikTok, I just want to laugh. Like, it brings joy. So you're doing a good job in terms of bringing the mission of the company, Shou, I believe. Okay, so we already have a pre-submitted question before we are opening the opportunity for... Yes, I see so many hands, but time is of the essence. I will only have three opportunities. But I have one pre-submitted question that Shou can perhaps answer first. We've been talking a lot about impact, but what kind of impact are we trying to make in the future, especially in Southeast Asia and also in Indonesia? I'm asking that question. I posted a video yesterday, feel free to stitch it and tell me the impact that TikTok has had on your life. Shou. Time. That's my account if you don't follow it.

Thank you, Shou. We'd like to invite everybody to also later on visit the exhibition area so that you get to see and experience what Shou was talking about. So maybe the gentleman over here, please. If, yeah, somebody can help give the microphone. Hang tight a little bit. Yes, feel free. Kindly state your name and media.

Hello, hi. My name is Hilal Azmi, coming from Astro Awani, Malaysia. Okay, since we know that the content has been so diverse, and on the news perspective, there is a lot of misinformation that we need to combat too. So I would like to ask you, maybe would TikTok consider in having more partnership in terms of experimenting to utilize the potential that TikTok has to work with the media company across Southeast Asia, especially to make sure that the content or the real fact being shared across the platform? Because at the same time, currently the news industry across the region is in a deep, okay, is a very challenging time for news industry right now. So would you like to explore more on the news partnership and how can newsrooms have a new revenue stream through TikTok? Thank you.

Thank you. And we can have one more question. The lady in front, please.

Hi, my name is Shas from Mus Indonesia. I want to ask about yesterday you met with our Minister, Minister of Trade, and there are rumors that TikTok will invest 10 billion US dollars in the next 10 years. Is it true?

Thank you so much, Shou, for being here with us and spending time with us. I am going to close the session, and I would like to excuse you as well because I know you have another meeting. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, our media friends, for joining this media session. And then with that, I'm Angin Tawan signing off, and we'll see you again when we see you. Thank you.