JAKARTA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Indonesian e-commerce firm

Bukalapak said on Tuesday that it would stop selling

physical items on its marketplace soon, amid tough competition

from TikTok's Tokopedia and Sea's Shopee in Southeast

Asia's largest economy.

Bukalapak, which went public in 2021, said in a statement

that it later would only sell virtual products ranging from

mobile phone credits to streaming vouchers. Customers have until

Feb. 9 to make last orders for certain items, Bukalapak added.

"Bukalapak will undergo a transformation in an effort to

increase focus on virtual products ... we fully understand that

these changes will impact the sellers and we are committed to

making this transition as smooth as possible," the company said.

Shares of Bukalapak were down 4.1% to 117 rupiah on

Wednesday as of 0519 GMT.

On the day of its market debut in August 2021, Bukalapak

shares had soared by the daily limit of 25% to 1,060 rupiah a

piece as investors looked to get a piece of the company that

raised $1.5 billion in its initial public offering.

But over the three years since its listing, Bukalapak

has faced fierce competition from Indonesia's e-commerce market

leader Shopee, which is owned by Southeast Asian technology firm

Sea, and from Tokopedia.

Tokopedia, another homegrown e-commerce company, is now

majority owned by ByteDance's TikTok, which acquired 75.01% of

the shares from local tech conglomerate GoTo early

last year.

Bukalapak reported a loss of 593.23 billion rupiah ($36.62

million) in the first nine months of 2024, according to its

latest financial results.

($1 = 16,200.0000 rupiah)