Outlook: The opportunity is definitely there<\/p>\n
The lack of security and law enforcement is one of the many
\nthings hampering the development of e-commerce in the country.
\nEka N. Ginting, CEO of locally based travel portal indo.com,
\nanswers The Jakarta Post's questions on the issue.<\/p>\n
Question: How do you see the development of the country's e-
\ncommerce?<\/p>\n
Answer: Very positive. E-commerce must be understood as a very
\nstrong consumer empowerment phenomenon -- with the Internet and
\nthe e-commerce that it enables, consumers now have far more
\naccess to information than they used to have, the convenience of
\nsearching and transacting beyond their wildest dreams, the
\nability to do price comparisons across the world, and the ability
\nto demand and extract services that would really be tailored to
\neach of them individually. Now, everywhere, customers, as soon as
\nthey discover all these benefits, do not want to go back to non
\ne-commerce transactions.<\/p>\n
What does that mean for businesses?<\/p>\n
Well, if your customers were drawn by one particular set of
\nminds (e.g. mobile lifestyle, credit card payment, etc.), it
\nwould be imperative for businesses to cater to the demands of
\ntheir customers. Businesses must strategically integrate the
\nInternet and e-commerce into their business process -- from using
\nthe Internet as a sales channel where their customers can buy
\ntheir products\/services to smartly deploying Internet technology
\ninternally to ensure cost competitiveness. Indonesia is no
\ndifferent.<\/p>\n
So, the opportunity is definitely there. The entrepreneurs
\nwith ideas are there, and the manpower to execute them is also in
\nplace. What is lacking is serious financing support to make sure
\nlots and lots of good ideas get funded, and the very best ones
\nsurvive and become the anchor-Internet companies in Indonesia.
\nindo.com certainly hopes to be one of these companies.<\/p>\n
What are the main barriers of online shopping in Indonesia?<\/p>\n
Very basic: things to shop for and how to do the shopping.
\nWhat do I mean? In more advanced markets like the U.S., the first
\nfive things that get people's attention when it comes to online
\nshopping are computer products, financial products, travel, books
\nand auctions. Now, do we have these products in Indonesia? Yes,
\nwe have some computer products and probably more of travel.<\/p>\n
But there is no financial products yet available on the net --
\nBCA was great with its existing services -- that was a
\nbreakthrough in the Indonesian market. Books and auctions have
\nnot developed strongly. For books, for example, it is quite
\ninteresting to see. My wife bought books from Amazon.com and last
\nweek went to the Fatmawati branch of the post office to pick up
\nthe package. She found out that a good portion of the pick-up
\narea in Fatmawati is now occupied by Amazon.com's shipments -- so
\npeople in Indonesia are buying books online, from Amazon.<\/p>\n
Asking how one goes about shopping online is a simple way of
\nsaying that a lot of the infrastructure is not properly in place;
\nfrom as basic as Internet access (reasonable, but substantially
\nmore expensive than in markets like the U.S.), to payment gateway
\n(it is difficult to do rupiah credit card transactions online --
\nnot more than a handful of operators do so because it is
\nprohibitively expensive) to brand establishment (making sure
\npeople feel comfortable buying from a trusted name) to
\nfulfillment itself as well as customer service\/complaints. If you
\nthink that this is a huge problem, it is. But this is not unique
\nto the online world -- the Indonesian business environment is
\nstill hugely fragmented and inefficient -- ask Citibank or
\nTelkomsel how hard it is for them to make sure that bills get to
\ntheir customers on time. It is just that when you have the
\nscalability power of the Internet, a lot of these problems
\nsuddenly get magnified and accelerated.<\/p>\n
Do you think the lack of security and law are the major
\nconcerns of the industry?<\/p>\n
Let me answer by giving an example. As far as I know,
\nelectronic documents are still not an acceptable contract in the
\nIndonesian legal system. So if you withdraw money from an ATM, or
\nyou pay Telkom through an ATM, the printout is not a valid
\nreceipt. But does that stop people from using ATMs to withdraw
\nmoney or to make payments? Recent numbers from klikbca
\ntransactions certainly confirm that people are comfortable doing
\nfinancial transactions online. However, having the legal
\nenvironment supporting all of these activities would certainly be
\nwelcome. My suggestion is, don't fret over it. We could adopt an
\nexisting one from, say, the United Nations, and modify it later
\non as we find out what needs to be changed.<\/p>\n
How many transactions (in volume and value) can you book in a
\nday?<\/p>\n
For Indonesian hotels, through indo.com, we have the capacity
\nto rent out over 500 rooms per day, with an average rate of $50.
\nFor overseas hotels -- Phuket, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. -- we
\nhave another set of 500 rooms per day that we can rent. What we
\nhave realized so far is a few dozen transactions per day, for
\nabout 100 rooms\/night, for a total value of a few thousand
\ndollars in one day. (hen)<\/p>",
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