Ahmad Zaky, CEO of Indonesian e-commerce company Bukalapak.com, said that the growth of Indonesian internet business has the ability to compete with Japan and ASEAN countries. One of the strong supporting factors of Indonesia’s internet business is demography.
“Our population mostly consists of young internet users,” Zaky said at the Investor Summit Grand City Expo event in Surabaya, Friday, August 19, 2016.
Zaky predicted that currently, around 60 percent of the Indonesian population has access to the internet. Combined with the demography factor, Zaky forecasted that all Indonesian citizen will be able to use the internet in the next five years. “In the next five years, people not using the internet will feel alienated,” Zaky said.
Zaky added that the rapid development of smartphone technology is another factor that supports the growth of internet users. “I can’t imagine, within the next 10 years, everything must have already use digital technology,” Zaky said.
Zaky also compared the number of Indonesian population, which could reach up to 300 million, with Japan’s population. “Japanese population is not that many. It tends to decrease,” Zaky explained.
Another driver of Indonesian internet business, according to Zaky, is the increasing sales of smartphones. Zaky said that smartphone sales could reach as high as 3.5 million in just one month. As a result, Zaky asserted that in the next two to three years, there will be 100 to 150 million smartphone users in Indonesia. “This is why I am confident that the internet business in Indonesia could exceed Japan,” Zaky explained.
Zaky said that in order to overrun ASEAN and Japan internet companies, local internet business players must be able to dominate the domestic market.
Other supporting factor, as Zaky explained, is the number of potential customers in Indonesia. For example, Zaky said that the largest number of Google PlayStore customers is from Indonesia. Foreign applications such as BlackBerry Messenger, Whatsapp, and games like Clash of Clans or Pokemon Go, are mainly downloaded by Indonesians. “Now imagine if Indonesian people were to create games or applications to be sold at PlayStore,” Zaky said.
However, Zaky also highlighted the challenges that must be faced in the era of global competition, one of which is price competitiveness. Zaky said that nowadays, people can buy cheaper goods from China rather than Indonesia through e-commerce. “Well this will depend on the President’s discretion in developing the needed infrastructure,” Zaky said.
Nevertheless, Zaky remains optimistic that the current economic growth can strengthen Indonesia’s position in the Asian region. “If we can conquer Indonesian [market], we can conquer ASEAN,” Zaky concluded.