MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and video hosting service TikTok have formed a partnership for “edutainment,” an education and entertainment program aimed at helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines.
Marcos wants TikTok to train small sellers
Marcos said he wants TikTok to train small-scale sellers and entrepreneurs in the Philippines, especially in rural areas, to promote their products, considering that the social media platform has 50 million users in the Philippines alone.
“Because I mean, from the beginning, TikTok is really just a very simple platform. But because of its popularity, for example, for someone like me in politics, if you’re talking to 50 million people, then I need to be part of the conversation ……. So it’s inevitable …… Marcos said.
TikTok CEO excited about partnership
Chau expressed excitement about the two programs under “Teach for Fun,” which means greater inclusivity for the country’s small sellers.
He noted that other countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia have taken similar initiatives to provide a platform for MSMEs to sell nationwide and export to the rest of the world.
“We want to provide more resources to focus on and train local sellers in the rural areas of the country as this is one of the interesting aspects of the platform. What we want to do is highlight local products, especially from small sellers,” Chew said.
TikTok commits to community guidelines
Chew also noted that with 50 million TikTok users in the Philippines, it is important to ensure that the social media platform’s community guidelines are followed.
He said users can be as creative as they want, but should be mindful of TikTok’s rules to avoid possible violations.
“So we want to keep that in place. Rules that keep people civil and keep the platform safe. So we have community guidelines like no violence, no sexually abusive content, we have all of those guidelines and we have a team of people who are responsible for reviewing content,” Chew said.
“So if any content violates the guidelines, we make adjustments. We have a local representative who also works closely with one of the regulators. If we find a violation on our platform, we get quick feedback and take action, which is something we take very seriously.”
Marcos agrees with Cho, saying it’s hard to distinguish between strong opinions and fake news.
“But it’s just a difference in opinion and expression, and sometimes it’s hard to determine if you …… , what’s excessive and what’s acceptable, but I think you have all the rules you need to do …… ,” he said.
About TikTok
TikTok is a short video hosting service developed by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company registered in the Cayman Islands.
The video hosting service was launched in the Philippines in May 2017, when it was launched internationally.
Last April, the company launched TikTok Shop, the e-commerce portion of TikTok, which allows users to browse and buy the products they see in their videos.
TikTok sees Southeast Asia as its largest emerging market outside of the U.S., with 325 million monthly active users, covering nearly half of the region’s population.