TikTok booms in South-East Asia as it picks path through political minefields

South-East Asia offers a clear view of the global strategy ByteDance is implementing to avoid crackdowns in other regions that influencers like Saputra now fear. — Reuters

SINGAPORE: At 19, Sandy Saputra is big on TikTok Indonesia. Within a year, he's leapt from quiet, small-town life to star influencer status as more than 10.5 million followers lap up his toothy grin in dancing, pranking and lip-synching videos on the booming app.

Sandy's success, becoming his family’s main breadwinner as global brands like Coca Cola or Suntory pay to have their names on his light-hearted clips, comes as TikTok mushrooms across South-East Asia. Data trackers show it's been downloaded hundreds of millions of times already in a region with a collective population of 630 million – half of them under 30.