Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan reminded WhatsApp that there is no need to sell on the platform. According to him, WhatsApp is enough to promote business.

In his presentation at the WhatsApp Business Summit Indonesia, Zulkifli explained WhatsApp’s position as Social Commerce. Quoting Minister of Trade Regulation 31 of 2023, platforms known as Social Commerce may only promote goods and services.

“I think WhatsApp is here [social commerce), lebih adil. Kalau begini begini terus. Enggak usah ikut buka warung,” kata dia, Rabu (1/11/2023).

Posisi platform social commerce sama seperti TV. Jadi bisnis hanya bisa beriklan atau mempromosikan, bukan untuk bertransaksi.

Dia menjelaskan posisi yang diambil itu jadi paling adil. Menurutnya dalam berdagang yang paling penting adalah asal free dan juga fair.

“Karena ini paling fair menurut saya. Dagang itu kan enggak hanya free, tapi free dan fair,” ungkap dia.

Ini juga berarti, bisnis tetap dipegang oleh mereka yang memang berjualan sebelumnya bukan diambil alih platform. “Yang berjualan tetap Alfamart, Siloam, BCA, UMKM. Tapi dia [WhatsApp] promote,” said Zulhas.

However, he also does not rule out the opportunity for parties who want to sell as e-Commerce. For this reason, there are also rules so that goods from abroad are not invaded but it is difficult to sell them in other countries.

For your information, the rules related to Social Commerce are contained in the Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) No 31/2023 concerning Business Licensing, Advertising, Development and Supervision of Business Actors in Trading Through Electronic Systems.

This revision of regulations forced TikTok to close the TikTok Shop feature on its social media platform because the government prohibits companies from operating ecommerce and social media in the same application and prohibits sharing algorithms between one application and another.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]