In the early 2000’s, Indonesia had 1.8 million Internet users. Now with a total of 63 million Internet users, Indonesia is starting to become a very popular destination for platforms to expand to. Indonesia has produced some staggering statistics to show that they are a mobile and digitally savvy country.
- Indonesia has 63 million Internet users, the most in the Southeast Asia region
- They are highly mobile, 65.7% use the Internet through a smartphone
- Surpassing the UK and the US; Indonesia is ranked #1 in online shopping market size (14% shop on mobile devices)
- Indonesians are socially savvy too. The country has the world’s biggest Facebook and Twitter users
With these incredible statistics, it’s no wonder many big international platforms plan on breaking into the Indonesian market in 2013.
Messaging app giants competing neck to neck: Kakao Talk vs. WeChat
Korean chat app, Kakao Talk is currently the #1 downloaded app in Indonesia’s Google Play Store. Capitalizing on the popularity of K-Pop in Indonesia, Kakao Talk lunched K-Pop star emoticons in February to appeal to Indonesian users. The strategy has successfully boosted the number of users by 288% within a two-month period. And now the company is ready to expand further by rolling out its new game plan - third-party game developers can now integrate their social gaming titles with Kakao Talk.
Meanwhile, Kakao’s competitor, WeChat (ranked #1 in Indonesia’s Google Play Store in March) has decided to adopt a different strategy. WeChat has recently teamed up with an Indonesian creative network to launch myraid Ramadan-themed emoticons. The company has its eyes on capturing the huge local Muslim population (86% of the total population) in the country.
Blackberry introduces mobile payment service in Indonesia
Responding to the trend of growing mobile users in Indonesia, Blackberry announced and piloted their new service, B Money, in February. The mobile payment service has been put together with Indonesia’s PT Bank Permata, which allows Blackberry users to transfer money to other BBM contacts or other bank accounts using their BBM account. This enables real time mobile payments and transfers for Blackberry users. 60,000 registrants were received within 90 days of launching the new service, Blackberry is well on their way of reaching their target of 200,000 users by the end of 2013. Blackberry is leading the mobile and smartphone market in Indonesia and this is a sure way to gain more customers to switch over to Blackberry. Read more.
Replicating Taobao’s success: Indonesia’s Tokopedia
Launched in 2009, Tokopedia has quickly become the number one marketplace in Indonesia. The C2C e-commerce store acquired 75,000 users in its first two years of launching and grew 686 % in 2012. Tokopedia has received rounds of funding from Softbank Ventures Korea, Netprice.com, PT. Indonusa Dwitama, East Ventures and Cyber Agent. With billions of Rupiah in sales and 53% repeat buyers each month; it reflects the increase of people in Indonesia opting to shop online. Read more.
Who do you think is next to enter into the Indonesian market?
