Under the YouTube Shopping tie-up, people will be able to purchase goods viewed on YouTube through links to Shopee, which is owned by the Singapore-based technology conglomerate Sea Ltd.

Company executives said they plan to expand the service to Thailand and Vietnam in a few weeks.  

YouTube Asia-Pacific director Ajay Vidyasagar said in Jakarta that with YouTube Shopping, YouTube parent Alphabet Inc and Shopee will be competing against TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app, which has increased its ambitions for the region after taking control of Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

Last year, TikTok’s shopping service, TikTok Shop, accounted for 16.3 billion in gross merchandise value in Southeast Asia, in a nearly fourfold jump from the previous year. This has made the platform the region’s second largest e-commerce platform after Shopee.