DECEMBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8Indonesia's biggest tech firm, GoTo Gojek Tokopedia, said on Dec 8 it was talking with short video app TikTok over a potential e-commerce partnership in the Southeast Asian country.No final deal has been reached, GoTo added in a statement. The company also said the discussions did not include a takeover plan or any sale of more than 50 percent of its shares to any party.Indonesia in October banned online shopping on social media platforms to protect smaller merchants and users' data, after which TikTok had to close its e-commerce service TikTok Shop. TikTok has 125 million users in the country. Indonesia's small and medium enterprises minister, Teten Masduki, told Reuters in November that TikTok had spoken to five companies, including GoTo, Bukalapak.com and Blibli, about a possible partnership.Bloomberg earlier this week said TikTok had struck an agreement to invest in a unit of GoTo, citing people familiar with the matter. Indonesia's e-commerce market is expected to grow to around $160 billion by 2030 from $62 billion this year, according to a report on Southeast Asia's internet economy by Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and consultancy Bain & Co. Baoshan Steel (Baosteel), China's largest steel producer, announced on Dec 8 that it has agreed to buy a 48.6 percent stake in the steel company from Shandong Steel Group for 10.7 billion yuan ($1.49 billion). The stake will belong to SD Steel Rizhao Co Ltd, based in the northern Chinese city of Rizhao, and will increase Baosteeland's presence in the northern Chinese market, Baosteel said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.Baosteel, a unit of China's Baowu Group, said it was awaiting approval from the country's resource management authority. The government of the northern province of Shandong supports Shandong Steel Group.China Baowu Steel Group Corp., Ltd., commonly known as Baowu, is a state-owned iron and steel company headquartered in the Baosteel Tower in Pudong, Shanghai, China. The company was formed by Baosteel Group, absorbing its smaller state-owned peer, Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation in 2016.In 2015, Baowu was the second largest steel producer in the world measured by crude steel output, with an annual output of around 35 million tons (China's total steel production in 2015 was 803.8 million tons), and employed 130,401 employees as of the end of 2012, had annual revenues of around $21.5 billion, and produces a mix of products. NEWSROOMGOJEK TOKOPEDIA IN TALKS WITH TIKTOK FOR E-COMMERCE PARTNERSHIPBAOSTEEL TO PURCHASE STAKE IN SHANDONG STEEL COMPANYDECEMBERASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8
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