A Month of Operation, Masduit Gold Investment Platform Business Strategy Pivot

Gold investment platform Masduit changes marketing strategy within a month since official launch by utilizing agent and application paths messaging. This decision was taken because the company found that the majority of users were not oriented towards transactions through the application.

Masduit CEO Bony Hudi explained, at first the company was very confident that it could encourage people to buy gold through applications. The application is the only channel that Masduit opens for buying and selling gold. But in fact, just a month after launch, the download rate has not reached 1000 times.

This figure missed the company's initial target of 500 thousand downloads by the end of this year. About 30% of them are monthly active users.

Although the download target is far from being realized, interestingly it is claimed that active users reach 60%-70%. As many as 70% of active users in Masduit are women who are located outside Jabodetabek. Even found from remote areas such as Kalimantan, Aceh, Maluku, and so on.

The contribution of gold sales from applications is somewhat less desirable. Since Masduit opened marketing channels outside the application, such as on Instagram and WhatsApp, they have become the largest contributors, at 30% and 40% respectively.

"We were too confident at first, wanting to focus on applications only. But looking at the numbers this month, we decided to pivot. Delaying focus on applications, opening access to other channels. Hopefully, people will be able to slowly shifting," explained Bony, last week.

The agency line itself has just been launched, there are five in total spread over Jakarta, Surabaya, Jambi, Medan, and Bandung. Consumers can buy and sell gold through agents. The base price provided by Masduit is already listed in the application and is updated regularly.

The agency mechanism at this early stage is limited to the first and second layers of the Masduit environment and at least already has a gold shop. Another requirement is a minimum deposit of gold that they will sell.

Especially for agents, Masduit will encourage them to use the application. In addition to making digital recording easier, it also minimizes risks that may occur in the future.

"In the application, we also provide price updates buyback gold. They can use the nominal which actually already contains a commission component. Or you can use the price above that."

For the record, Masduit has just sold gold in denominations of 0,1 grams, 0,25 grams, and 0,5 grams. This gold has been printed and can be sent directly to the user after buying it. The gold supply is produced by Masduit's parent, Hartadinata. There are logistics partners who have worked together for the delivery of gold throughout Indonesia.

Not only agents, Masduit will sell gold to e-commerce platforms. Which is slightly different, Masduit does not act as a merchant. Gold from Masduit will be channeled through e-commerce aggregators. The aggregator will manage the distribution of gold sales to the appropriate e-commerce sites.

"It doesn't matter which aggregator wants to sell to which e-commerce site, do you want it? marketplace or not, it doesn't matter. Because later there will be an API that connects everything and can be monitored directly."

Bony hopes that through this strategy, there will be a shift in the way user transactions are carried out to the application.

"The projection is that in three years we can sell 3,5 kilos of gold a month. That is the point where Masduit will make a profit," he concluded.