JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian e-commerce firm Bukalapak said on Tuesday that it would stop selling physical items on its marketplace soon, amid tough competition from TikTok’s Tokopedia and Sea’s Shopee in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Bukalapak, which went public in 2021, said in a statement that it later would only sell virtual products ranging from mobile phone credits to streaming vouchers. Customers have until Feb. 9 to make last orders for certain items, Bukalapak added.
“Bukalapak will undergo a transformation in an effort to increase focus on virtual products … we fully understand that these changes will impact the sellers and we are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible,” the company said.
Shares of Bukalapak were down 4.1% to 117 rupiah on Wednesday as of 0519 GMT.
On the day of its market debut in August 2021, Bukalapak shares had soared by the daily limit of 25% to 1,060 rupiah a piece as investors looked to get a piece of the company that raised $1.5 billion in its initial public offering.
But over the three years since its listing, Bukalapak has faced fierce competition from Indonesia’s e-commerce market leader Shopee, which is owned by Southeast Asian technology firm Sea, and from Tokopedia.
Tokopedia, another homegrown e-commerce company, is now majority owned by ByteDance’s TikTok, which acquired 75.01% of the shares from local tech conglomerate GoTo early last year.
Bukalapak reported a loss of 593.23 billion rupiah ($36.62 million) in the first nine months of 2024, according to its latest financial results.
($1 = 16,200.0000 rupiah)
