We spent a lot of time yesterday and Wednesday checking out the Startup Asia Jakarta 2014 conference. Part of that is because we were media partners for the event, but mostly it’s because we’re really interested in Indonesia’s tech industry, as it is one of the most dynamic elements of Jakarta and it iss rapidly reshaping what this country is capable of. Plus we were hoping to get some inside tips from IT nerds on how to get around the country’s porn block (we’re just kidding, of course, but we were glad to hear that Rudiantara, the new minister of communications and information technology, is working on getting Vimeo unblocked)
For detailed reporting on all of conference’s various speakers and events, you can check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the event. But we want to highlight one interesting topic covered extensively at this edition of Startup Asia Jakarta: e-commerce
E-commerce a go-go in Indonesia
A large chunk of the conference was devoted to business leaders and analysts talking about the state of e-commerce in Indonesia. Despite the rapidly increasing number of internet users in the country, the amount of people who are shopping and paying for things online remains relatively low. But it looks like a lot of people are looking to change that in order to take advantage of Indonesia’s rapidly expanding middle-class.
Daniel Tumiwa (above), VP of digital business for Garuda Indonesia and chairman of the Indonesian Ecommerce Association (idEA) gave a talk about the potential in Indonesia’s e-commerce sector. According to his data, we’re at a tipping point, with the number of online shoppers in Indonesia poised to grow from just 3% of the population to 30% over the next 5 years.
One of the things that analysts have long said was holding back Indonesian e-commerce is a reliance on cash for purchase payments, but Tumiwa says the data shows that coming to an end. In 2013, cash on delivery was the most popular way to pay in Indonesia with 62 percent of all online shoppers going that routed. In 2014, that number fell to 25 percent. ATM payments also fell.
Nabila Alsagoff (above), the COO of Doku, a company that bills itself as “Indonesia’s leading e-payment solutions provider” also argued that e-commerce was about to go big in the archipelago.
One of the things that e-commerce has to work around is the fact that 80 percent of Indonesians don’t even have bank accounts, and of those who do, only seven percent use online banking and two percent have credit cards. But strangely, Doku found most people were happy with their limited payment options, which is related to distrust of non-cash payment systems.
The Doku COO said the solution was not to force customers into a specific payment system but to give them lots of different options, everything from credit cards to ATMs to making cash payments at their local convenience stores. By giving them these option, Alsagoff argued, in tandem with strong customer service and clear refund policies, trust could be quickly built up with new online shoppers.
One of the most anticipated speakers at the conference was the CEO of local online shopping powerhouse Tokopedia, William Tanuwijaya (above). Tokopedia, as you may remember, recently received a US$100 million investment from Japan’s SoftBank and India’s Sequoia Capital, the largest in Indonesian startup history.
Tanuwijaya spoke about how difficult it was to get people to initially believe in and invest in his idea, but his perseverance paid off. He also spoke about how his site had gotten to where it was by providing its users and vendors with a consistent experience that made everyone’s lives easier. He also spoke about his vision for turning Jakarta into Indonesia’s Silicon Valley by getting top local and international talents to work here.
There was lots of other cool insights and information at Startup Asia Jakarta and we’ll be sure to share of that with you in the future as well. We can definitely say if you’re a part of or want to get the inside track on Asia’s tech scene, you might want to think about attending the next Statup Asia which is happening in Singapore in 2015.
Coconuts Media is a media partner with Startup Asia
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