SSI, Sigma jointly develop e-marketplace for electronics

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)