Two more companies enter domestic Internet market<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's nascent Internet market became more
\ncrowded after two companies announced on Wednesday their entrance
\ninto the business, offering different sites for consumer product
\ninformation and online auctions.<\/p>\n
International business information company Castle Group, in
\ncooperation with India's Internet company Edge NetVentures,
\nlaunched on Wednesday what they claimed to be Indonesia's first
\nintegrated consumer portal, www.kemana.com.<\/p>\n
Separately, local Internet service provider PT Metamedia
\nInteraktif launched a new feature for its five-week-old online
\nauction site called gadogado.net.<\/p>\n
Sachin Gopalan, the chief executive officer of
\nwww.kemana.com's owner Edge NetVentures, said his company decided
\nto enter Indonesia's Internet market because it saw an immense
\nopportunity for the future, especially for consumer product
\nportal sites.<\/p>\n
\"There are not so many good sites available currently here so
\nwe have a very good chance to provide Internet users with the
\nbest content and service, which, in this case, is on consumer
\nproducts and shopping information,\" Gopalan said.<\/p>\n
The president of Castle Group in Indonesia, James Castle, said
\nthe company was highly optimistic of being able to capture a
\nsignificant number of the country's estimated one million
\nInternet users at present.<\/p>\n
Castle said studies done by ACNielsen showed that 39 percent
\nof Internet users in Indonesia went online for reading news,
\nreflecting the dominance of news portals and the opportunity for
\nconsumer-based content portals.<\/p>\n
\"Being the largest Southeast Asian consumer market, Indonesia
\nactually presents a potential Internet market of up to 15 million
\nin the next five years,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said www.kemana.com was designed to allow customers to cut
\ncosts and save time in window shopping by instead checking out
\nthe necessary information on a particular product, including the
\nprice, item specification and best place to purchase it, on the
\nInternet before actually buying it.<\/p>\n
Castle declined to reveal the investment his company and Edge
\nNetVentures had put into the development of www.kemana.com, but
\nasserted that it was about less than half the average funds spent
\nby other portals operating in the country.<\/p>\n
It is currently focusing its coverage on Jakarta's market, but
\nthere are plans to expand within the next 12 months to nine other
\ncities, with immediate priority given to Surabaya and Medan.<\/p>\n
Castle said www.kemana.com was projected to be listed on the
\nstock market here or in Singapore after the site was in full
\noperation in all the designated cities.<\/p>\n
He added that the company expected to be able to operate in a
\npositive cash flow within 12 months.<\/p>\n
Separately, the general manager of online auction portal
\ngadogado.net, Toni Gushendarto, also expressed optimism about the
\nbusiness, saying his company expected a break-even point soon
\nafter it starts the commercial advertisement service, which is
\nthe main revenue generator in the Internet business.<\/p>\n
He said the company had seen a positive response from Internet
\nusers, as indicated by a significant growth of registered clients
\nby an average of 30 percent per week since the site went online
\non Feb. 1.<\/p>\n
\"We have now over 4,300 registered clients,\" Toni claimed.<\/p>\n
He said gadogado.net, which was introduced on Wednesday, is a
\nnew service to allow users to donate to humanitarian
\norganizations Sayap Ibu and Aids Indonesia by auctioning goods in
\nthe charitable section, of which it had facilitated more than 200
\ntransactions.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that the number of transactions done on the
\nInternet in Indonesia was, however, still way below that in
\nneighboring countries.<\/p>\n
Toni quoted an international survey which reported that
\nIndonesia had an estimated US$2.65 million in total online
\ntransactions in 1998, while at the same time Singapore recorded
\n$8.94 million and Malaysia $6.31 million.<\/p>\n
\"We expect to facilitate more transactions in the near future.
\nAt the moment, the Indonesian market still needs to be educated
\nabout the beauty of online shopping,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Castle said Internet shopping in Indonesia was still very slow
\nat the moment, hampered mainly by people's concern about the
\nsecurity of virtual transactions, the hesitation of many
\nretailers to reveal their price and conditions as well as a lack
\nof legal assurance.<\/p>\n
\"With the dynamic campaigning done by existing Internet
\ncompanies, we hope to see a significant, positive improvement in
\nlocal market perceptions and attitudes toward e-commerce in the
\nnext three years,\" Toni said.<\/p>\n
The American information technology and telecommunications
\nresearch firm, International Data Corporation, estimated the
\nnumber of Indonesians who buy goods on the Internet would swell
\nfrom approximately 70,000 in 2000 to 600,000 by 2003.<\/p>\n
There are about 3,544 web sites managed by various companies
\nin Indonesia at present and between 40 and 50 of them are
\nInternet Service Providers (ISPs).<\/p>\n
The number of commercial web sites is expected to increase
\nfurther this year with the recent swarm of local and foreign
\nInternet companies, such as Singaporean search engine portal
\nCatcha Group and local news content portals Detik.com and
\nAstaga.com.<\/p>\n
Some local non-Internet companies have also announced their
\nplans to enter the online business, including insurance firm
\nLippo Life, electronics and office equipment suppliers Astra
\nGraphia, Multipolar and Metrodata Electronics. (cst)<\/p>",
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