Through IMkas, Indosat Enters Again in the Electronic Money Competition Map

Indosat Ooredoo is again trying their luck in the electronic money business by releasing the IMkas application, after a three-year hiatus since close my wallet. Blessing from Bank Indonesia has been given through a letter submitted on February 19, 2020.

To DailySocial, Director and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of Indosat Ooredoo Arief Musta'ín explained, on March 20, 2020 the company launched a new name for IMkas electronic money for cellular users in Indonesia. According to him, IMkas is a payment solution that complements Indosat's cellular digital solutions, as well as encouraging the adoption of digital payments in Indonesia.

"The change in the brand/brand of Indosat Ooredoo electronic money has received approval from Bank Indonesia according to letter No.22/126/DKSP/Srt/B dated February 19, 2020," he explained, yesterday (9/6).

He continued, IMkas has a "New Way of Transaction" jargon, namely a way of transacting in the cellular ecosystem. This new name replaces the previous name PayPro which has been active since 2017.

IMkas comes in the form of a mobile application and USSD with various features for purchasing cellular credit, cellular data packages, electricity tokens, payments, water bills, BPJS, P2P transfers, and insurance payments.

It is not clear how much Indosat is optimistic about competing in the realm of electronic money. Arief instead refers to the report e-Conomy SEA 2019 released by Google, Temasek, and Bain Company; the average growth of the digital economy in Southeast Asia has reached 33% since 2015. Indonesia is one of the countries that grows above the average of 49% per year.

"The internet economy in Indonesia is expected to continue to grow to reach $130 billion by 2025," he said, referring to the report.

In addition, the company's confidence is also supported by its customer base, which reached 56,2 million in the first quarter of this year. “Indosat Ooredoo as leading digital company continually strive to provide digital experiences most complete for cellular subscribers in Indonesia.”

Learn from mistakes

Before GoPay, Ovo, and Dana came; Electronic money players were initially dominated by banking and telecommunications. The money-burning strategy adopted by this new player is not in line with the corporate spirit that must be responsible for providing returns for shareholders. Moreover, from their strategy, they tend to be exclusive, their market share is limited to their customers.

This difficult choice was finally answered either by closing it or being transferred to another company that was more "bold". The closing of Dompetku in 2017, gave a domino effect for telco players to do the same. XL Tunai is officially closed earlier this year, after eight years of operation.

Telkomsel through T-Cash finally merged with a variety of electronic money under the state-owned company under brand new LinkAja and inaugurated in the middle of last year. My money, owned by Smartfren, still survives and is affiliated with Traveloka as a payment method.

For Indosat's track record, the company first obtained a license from Bank Indonesia through BI letter No. 10/14/DASP regarding Permit as an Electronic Money Issuer which was issued on January 9, 2008. After Dompetku was declared closed, the license was transferred to PayPro in 2017.

A year after using it, my Dompetku license was released due to PayPro, under the group Bios Digiasia, now has its own license held by KasPro (PT Solusi Pasti Indonesia). This means that for approximately two years, my Dompetku license has been "idle".

Indosat is trying its luck again in this area, even though IMkas has not adopted the agnostic concept, which means that it can only be used by Indosat users. DailySocial had asked how Indosat tips to increase IMkas prestige, but Arief did not answer.

It is very likely that Indosat learns from previous mistakes. Hence, IMkas can also be accessed by USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), in order to strengthen the company's optimism to reach users in remote areas who do not have a smartphone.

USSD is a short message technology owned by GSM network operators. Generally used for text exchange between mobile phones and applications on the operator's network.

In addition, the addition of features that are relevant to the needs also needs to be done so that the company's ambitions can be realized.