JAKARTA, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Indonesia has asked

Alphabet's Google and Apple ( AAPL ) to block Chinese

fast fashion e-commerce firm Temu in their application stores in

the country so it cannot be downloaded, a minister said on

Friday.

The move was intended to pre-emptively protect the country's

small and medium-sized businesses against cheap products being

offered by PDD Holdings' ( PDD ) Temu, communications minister

Budi Arie Setiadi told Reuters, even though authorities have not

found any transactions yet by its residents on the platform.

Temu's rapid growth has triggered scrutiny over its low-cost

business model of sending parcels to customers from China by

several countries.

Temu's business model, which connects consumers directly

with factories in China in order to significantly reduce prices,

is "unhealthy competition," Budi said.

"We're not here to protect e-commerce, but we protect small

and medium enterprises. There are millions we must protect," the

minister said.

Jakarta will also block any investment by Temu in local

e-commerce if it makes such a move, Budi said, adding he has not

heard of any such plan.

Budi also said the government plans to request a similar

block for Chinese shopping service Shein.

Temu, Apple ( AAPL ) and Google did not respond to requests to

comment.

Shein said they do not have operations in Indonesia, a

company spokeperson said.

Indonesia forced China's ByteDance social media platform

TikTok to close its e-commerce service in the country last year

to protect local merchants and users' data.

Months later, TikTok agreed to buy a majority stake in

Indonesian tech conglomerate GoTo's e-commerce unit in

order to stay in Southeast Asia's biggest e-commerce market.

On Tuesday, Indonesian homegrown e-commerce Bukalapak.com

denied reports about an acquisition plan by Temu.

Indonesia's e-commerce industry is set to expand to about

$160 billion by 2030 from $62 billion in 2023, according to a

report by Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and

consultancy Bain & Co.