YouTube has officially introduced its first-ever shopping feature in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia chosen as the launch market. This new initiative, known as YouTube Shopping, allows viewers to make direct purchases from videos, shorts, and livestreams via embedded links that redirect them to Shopee, a prominent e-commerce platform. This move is part of YouTube’s strategy to tap into Indonesia’s burgeoning digital economy, projected to reach a gross transaction value (GMV) of $110 billion by 2025.
Zaheer Travadi, industry head at Google Indonesia, highlighted the scale of this initiative, stating, “There are over 250,000 creators in YouTube Shopping.” He noted that while the affiliate program has been available in the US and South Korea, Indonesia marks its first expansion into Southeast Asia, with plans to introduce the program to Thailand and Vietnam soon.
The partnership with Shopee is being lauded as a strategic ‘masterstroke’ by industry insiders, leveraging YouTube’s vast user base alongside Shopee’s e-commerce capabilities to engage younger consumers. With projections suggesting that Indonesia’s e-commerce user base will reach 99.1 million by 2029, the potential for growth in this market is significant.
Research from Kantar reveals that 96% of Indonesian users spend extra time watching online videos to research products before making a purchase, underscoring the critical role YouTube plays in consumer decision-making. “YouTube is committed to building an engaging, informative, and entertaining shopping experience for both creators and viewers in Indonesia,” Travadi added, indicating that the platform will experiment with various YouTube Shopping features to enhance user experience.
Eligible content creators will be able to tag products from small, medium, and micro businesses listed on Shopee in their videos, providing them with the flexibility to embed these links in both new and existing content, as well as during livestreams. This new program complements existing monetization options for creators, which include ad revenue, YouTube Premium income, channel memberships, and super chats.
Once viewers click on a tagged product, they will be directed to an external sales page for a streamlined checkout process, simplifying the purchasing journey. Monica Vionna, senior director of marketing growth at Shopee Indonesia, expressed optimism that YouTube creators’ content would significantly benefit local brands and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through interactive features like Shopee Live and Shopee Video.
With this innovative step, YouTube aims to solidify its presence in the e-commerce space while fostering growth for local businesses in Indonesia. Plans are in place to invite more partners to join the affiliate program, further expanding the scope of YouTube Shopping in the region.
