TOPSHOT – A staff of a small shoe manufacturer shows their new products to make an introductory video to be posted on social media in Bogor, West Java on September 27, 2023. Indonesia has banned goods transactions on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook or Instagram in a new regulation, its trade minister said on September 27, as Jakarta aims to rein in direct sales on major platforms it says are harming millions of small businesses.
Aditya Aji | Afp | Getty Images
TikTok’s Southeast Asian ambitions will take a major hit after Indonesia bans shopping transactions on social media apps, analysts told CNBC.
On Wednesday, Indonesia set a one-week deadline for TikTok to become a standalone app, without any e-commerce feature. If TikTok does not comply, it faces the risk of closure in the country.
“[Being a standalone app] could introduce significant friction for existing TikTok users, negatively impacting user experiences,” said Jonathan Woo, senior research analyst at Phillip Securities Research.
Indonesia has banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms such as TikTok Shop and Facebook. This means that users are not allowed to buy or sell goods and services through such platforms.
Even if it can secure a separate license to operate, operating as a standalone app may still be challenging.
Sachin Mittal
DBS Bank
TikTok is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, and is already under scrutiny from the U.S. lawmakers who are concerned about the company’s ownership structure and ties to China.
In June, TikTok’s CEO said the app will pour “billions of dollars” into Southeast Asia over the next few years as the company looks to diversify its business globally as U.S. pressure piles up.
Indonesia is TikTok’s largest Southeast Asian market and second-largest global market with 125 million users after the U.S., according to the company.
“Given that most [purchases on TikTok] are impulse buys, the need to log into a separate app might lead to a high drop-out rate,” said Sachin Mittal, head of telecom, media and technology research at DBS Bank, in a Thursday report.
Impulse buying from watching content is an advantage TikTok has, Mittal told CNBC previously.
“Even if it can secure a separate license to operate, operating as a standalone app may still be challenging,” said Mittal.
New social media rules
On Saturday, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo called for social media regulations, saying such platforms impact micro-, small- and medium-sized companies and the economy.
“Because we know it affects MSMEs, small businesses, micro-enterprises, and also the market, there are markets where sales have started to decline due to the influx,” he said in a statement.
Crucially, the only business affected will be challenger TikTok Shop, whose entire business model relies on social commerce.
Moving forward, Indonesia requires e-commerce platforms in the country to implement a minimum price of $100 for certain items that are directly purchased from overseas. All products offered should meet local standards.
“Crucially, the only business affected will be challenger TikTok Shop, whose entire business model relies on social commerce,” said BMI in a Tuesday report, adding that it expects to see a decline in TikTok Shop’s numbers.
TikTok Shop is trailing behind Shopee (36%), Tokopedia (35%), Lazada (10%) and Bukalapak (10%), the report said.
“In our view, TikTok Shop would have to prove that its e-commerce is a separate business from its social media, with no data sharing from the backend and possibly a clear source of funding for e-commerce losses, which was funded earlier by advertising business on its social media app,” said Mittal.
TikTok ‘deeply concerned’
In response to the Indonesia’s latest move, TikTok said that it will respect local rules and regulations.
“We are deeply concerned about [the] announcement, particularly how it would impact the livelihoods of the 6 million sellers and nearly 7 million affiliate creators who use TikTok Shop,” a TikTok spokesperson told CNBC.
“We respect local laws and regulations and will be pursuing a constructive path forward,” the person added.
This comes as TikTok has been looking for growth outside the U.S., as Chinese-owned apps face political headwinds. Its flagship app was banned in Montana on personal devices, the first state to do so, as well as in India.
“In the near term, the main beneficiaries to this regulation would be existing e-commerce players like Shopee and GoTo,” said Woo of Phillip Securities Research.
E-commerce marketplaces account for a significant share of Indonesia’s digital payment figures, said BMI.
In July, the value of digital transactions in Southeast Asia’s largest economy reached an all-time high of 160 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($10.3 billion) and transaction volume amounted to 1.7 trillion. Both metrics were up 65.8% and 71.5% respectively, compared to the same period a year ago, according to BMI.
Against a volatile market backdrop, the software maker’s stock has gained 45% and is the best performer among companies valued at $5 billion or more, according to FactSet. The closest tech names are VeriSign, up 33%, Okta, up 30%, Robinhood, up 29%, and Uber, up 29%.
“When you think about macroeconomic concerns, you as a company need to be more efficient, and this is where Palantir thrives,” said Bank of America analyst Mariana Pérez Mora.
Palantir has set itself apart in the software world for its artificial-intelligence-enabled tools, gaining recognition for its defense and software contracts with key U.S. government agencies, including the military. In the fourth quarter, its government revenues jumped 45% year-over-year to $343 million.
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Companies have faced immense volatility in 2025 as tariffs threaten to jeopardize global supply chains and halt day-to-day manufacturing operations by hiking costs. Those fears have brought the broad market index down about 7% this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has slumped 11%.
At the same time, the Trump administration has clamped down on government spending, giving Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency freedom to slash public sector costs. Some administration officials have touted shifting dollars from consulting contracts to commercial software providers like Palantir, said William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma.
“Palantir’s business model is highly aligned with the priorities of the Trump administration in terms of increasing agility and being very quick to market,” he said.
That’s put Palantir in the league with major contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which have outperformed in this year’s downdraft. Many companies in the space are also looking to partner with the firm and tend to flock to defense during recessionary times, DiPalma said.
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Palantir vs. the Nasdaq Composite
CEO Alex Karp has also been a vocal supporter of American innovation and the company’s central role in helping prop up what he called the “single best tech scene in the world” during an interview with CNBC earlier this year. Karp also told CNBC that the U.S. needs an “all-country effort” to compete against emerging adversaries.
But the ride for Palantir has been far from smooth, and shares have been susceptible to volatile swings. Shares sold off nearly 14% during the week that Trump first announced tariffs. Shares rocketed 22% one day in February on strong earnings.
Its inclusion in more passive and quant funds over the years and the growing attention of retail traders has added to that turbulence, DiPalma said. Last year, the company joined both the S&P and Nasdaq. Palantir trades at one of the highest price-to-earnings multiples in software and last traded at 185 times earnings over the next twelve months. That puts a steep bar on the stock.
Kurt Sievers, chief executive officer of NXP Semiconductors NV, during the Federation of German Industries (BDI) conference in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, June 19, 2023.
NXP Semiconductor Inc. fell about 8% on Monday after the chip company announced that CEO Kurt Sievers will step down as part of its latest earnings.
Here’s how the company did, versus LSEG consensus estimates:
Earnings per share: $2.64 adjusted vs. $2.58 expected
Revenue: $2.84 billion vs. $2.83 billion expected
Sievers will retire at the end of the year, with Rafael Sotomayor stepping in as president on April 28, 2025.
The company beat expectations on the top and bottom lines but cited a “challenging set of market conditions” looking forward.
“We are operating in a very uncertain environment influenced by tariffs with volatile direct and indirect effects,” Sievers said in an earnings release.
Sales in NXP’s first quarter declined 9% year over year.
The company posted $1.67 billion in auto sales during the first quarter, trailing analyst estimates of $1.69 billion.
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NXP Semi said that second-quarter sales would come in at a midpoint of $2.9 billion, ahead of the $2.87 billion that analysts were projecting. Second-quarter adjusted EPS will be $2.66, in line with analyst estimates.
The company logged first-quarter net income of $490 million, which was a 23% year-to-year drop from $639 million.
NXP’s net income per share was $1.92 compared to $2.47 during the same time a year ago. A drop of 22%.
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Microsoft President Brad Smith speaks during signing ceremony of cooperation agreement between the Polish Ministry of Defence and Microsoft, in Warsaw, Poland, February 17, 2025.
Kacper Pempel | Reuters
The U.S. cannot afford to fall behind China in the race to a working quantum computer, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote Monday.
President Donald Trump and the U.S. government need to prioritize funding for quantum research, or China could surpass the U.S., endangering economic competitiveness and security, Smith wrote.
“While most believe that the United States still holds the lead position, we cannot afford to rule out the possibility of a strategic surprise or that China may already be at parity with the United States,” Smith wrote. “Simply put, the United States cannot afford to fall behind, or worse, lose the race entirely.”
Microsoft’s position is the latest sign that research into quantum computing is starting to heat up among big tech companies and investors who are looking for the next technology that could rival the artificial intelligence boom.
Smith is calling for the Trump administration to increase funding for quantum research, renew the National Quantum Initiative Act and expand a program for testing quantum computers by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The Microsoft executive is also calling on the White House to expand the educational pipeline of people who have the math and science skills to work on quantum machines, fast-track immigration for Ph.D.s with quantum skills and for the government to buy more quantum-related computer parts to build a U.S. supply chain.
Microsoft did not detail how China surpassing the U.S. in quantum computing technology would endanger national security, but a National Security Agency official last year discussed what could happen if China or another adversary surprised the U.S. by building a quantum computer first.
The official, NSA Director of Research Gil Herrera, said that if such a “black swan” event happened, banks might not be able to keep transactions private because a quantum computer could crack their encryption, according to the Washington Times. A working quantum computer could also crack existing encrypted data that is usually shared publicly in a scrambled fashion, which could reveal secrets on U.S. nuclear weapon systems.
In February, Microsoft announced its latest quantum chip called Majorana, claiming that it invented a new kind of matter to develop the prototype device. Last year, Google announced Willow, a new device the company claimed was a “milestone” because it was able to correct errors and solve a math problem in five minutes that would have taken longer than the age of the universe on a traditional computer.
While the computers people are used to use bits that are either 0 or 1 to do calculations, quantum computers use “qubits,” which end up being on or off based on probability. Experts say that quantum computers will eventually be useful for problems with nearly infinite possibilities, such as simulating chemistry, or routing deliveries.
But the current quantum computers are far away from that point, and many computer industry participants say it could take decades for quantum computers to reach their potential.
Microsoft’s chip, Majorana, has eight qubits, but the company says it has a goal of least 1 million qubits for a commercially useful chip. Microsoft needs to build a device with a few hundred qubits before the company starts looking at whether it’s reliable enough for customers.