SSI, Sigma jointly develop e-marketplace for electronics

JAKARTA (JP) : PT Surya Semesta Internusa (SSI), a property company in cooperation with information and technology company Sigma Group will launch in July an e-marketplace especially designed for electronics products.

The e-marketplace to be called e-glodokplaza.com will be operated by PT e-glodokplaza dotcom, which will invest a total of US$2 million to develop the project.

Director of PT e-glodokplaza dotcom Hendrik Nangoi said that the portal would initially provide a virtual marketplace for some 400 electronics traders at Glodok Plaza.

Glodok Plaza was one of hundreds of buildings which were destroyed by a fire during the massive riots which hit Jakarta in May 1998. The riots, which killed hundreds of people, led to the downfall of former president Soeharto.

Hendrik said that the launching of the e-glodokplaza.com would mark the reopening of the Glodokplaza building, the largest electronics marketplace in the country.

According to him, e-glodokplaza.com would focus on business to business (B2B) e-commerce as its main target, rather than business to consumer(B2C) e-commerce.

The B2B e-commerce would be ready in August this year, he said, adding that the infrastructure for the e-marketplace would be set up by Malaysia-based company EBX-Sigma.

Hendrik said that all of the Glodokplaza tenants would be given access to carry out B2B transactions through the website as part of their leasing contracts.

He also said that the transaction fee for B2B transactions would be set as low as possible to encourage the traders to use the website.

Last month, a survey by PT Boston Consulting Group said that the average transaction fees charged by local B2B e-marketplace or e-commerce providers is about 5 percent, far higher than the fee of between 0.5 percent and 2 percent in the United States.

It said that the lack of advertising had prompted B2B e- commerce providers to charge their clients high transaction fees in order to allow them to survive. But this has also discouraged companies from using the Internet.

Along with the e-marketplace, PT e-glodokplaza dotcom also launched another business unit last week, e-arena, an IT center for training and education.

One of the IT centers was located in business district Rasuna Said, while another one would be launched in July at Glodok Plaza, Hendrik added. (05)