E-commerce platforms have also created new market opportunities for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), whose contribution to national employment and economic resilience is substantial (Winanti, 2020b). The Indonesian government, together with regional economic initiatives, has prioritised the integration of MSMEs into global digital commerce and value chains. Such integration requires regulatory adaptation and strong domestic policies (Winanti, 2020b).
The growing dominance of foreign digital platforms has raised concerns regarding data governance, unequal competition, economic sovereignty, and foreign market dependence. The influence of TikTok Shop and Shopee in Indonesia was reflected in a 2023 consumer survey involving 8,700 respondents (Lestari, 2025): Shopee represented 53.22 percent of e-commerce users, while TikTok Shop 27.37 percent. Many products sold through these and other platforms originated from overseas sellers, predominantly China, and were priced significantly lower than domestic goods. Traditional marketplaces and local merchants expressed concerns over predatory pricing practices and of foreign platforms dominating the domestic e-commerce. To address these concerns, Minister of Trade Regulation Number 31/2023 was introduced. This article argues that the Regulation illustrates how Indonesia, as other states in the Global South, increasingly employs neo-mercantilist strategies to govern e-commerce by combining protectionist regulation, selective openness, and conditional market access to preserve economic sovereignty, while remaining engaged with the norms of trade liberalism within the global digital economy.