TikTok launches restaurant recommendation service in Indonesia

TikTok launched TikTok Go by Tokopedia in Indonesia on April 29 as a service that links recommendations for local restaurants and services in its app to offline visits through videos, live streams, search, and location-based content.

The launch comes as Indonesia had 5.28 million food and beverage businesses in 2024, according to Statistics Indonesia.

About 65% of consumers use digital platforms to find new food options, based on a 2026 study.

At its first Partner Summit in Indonesia, TikTok said local service searches on the platform rise more than 60% a year and daily orders from dine-in merchants on TikTok GO rose more than 20 times in 2025, based on internal data.

🔗 Source: TikTok

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The ‘by Tokopedia’ name came from Indonesia’s rules after the 2023 ban

Indonesia banned ecommerce transactions inside social media apps in October 2023. The rule forced TikTok to stop TikTok Shop in the country 1.
To get back into the market, TikTok agreed to invest more than US$1.5 billion over time. It also paid US$840 million for a 75.01% controlling stake in GoTo’s PT Tokopedia, the Indonesian ecommerce business of GoTo Group, and folded TikTok Shop Indonesia into the enlarged Tokopedia entity 1.
In Indonesia, shopping features inside TikTok are run by the enlarged Tokopedia entity. Available sources do not say TikTok GO is run by that business, or that this setup gives TikTok a local license to handle commerce 2.

TikTok is borrowing a China-style commerce model while seller friction grows

The move into local services follows experiments tied to ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company. In Indonesia and Thailand, the app lets users get vouchers for restaurants as well as flights and hotels through feed links. It also plans tie-ups for services such as food delivery 3.
Some merchants ran into trouble after linking Tokopedia seller dashboards with TikTok systems. A few said revenue fell by more than 50%. They also said they were pushed to make videos and use influencer-style marketing, so some shifted shoppers to Shopee 4.
The pressure is also hitting rivals. Shopee, Sea Ltd.’s ecommerce arm, posted a third-quarter net loss of US$143.9 million after a prior-quarter net income of US$331 million while chasing growth to defend market share against competitors including TikTok 2.