Continuously Encouraging Startup Presence Outside Jabodetabek

Increasingly fierce business competition in the city tier 1 Indonesia, such as Jakarta and Surabaya, makes new startups try to shift their focus to cities tier 2 and 3. They offer unique solutions that are considered relevant to solving problems in the city. It is claimed that startups like this can grow positively even though they do not offer services to cities top tier.

Yogyakarta, for example, is not only referred to as a paradise for developer, but has also given birth to several startups that still exist and survive.

One of the Yogyakarta startups is leave me. The startup founded by Henri Suhardja has changed its strategy from a national marketplace to a marketplace with the concept of hyperlocal, namely the focus on digitizing area by area, starting with the market as the trading heart of each area.

"Each area of ​​Titipku is only the size of a sub-district. We promote to local people for online shopping from SMEs and markets that they already know through Titipku. We get equally high results, both in big cities and in the regions. My tip is growing fast with the hyperlocal concept."

Founded in 2017, Titipku claims to have embraced tens of thousands of SMEs and hundreds of thousands of users. Until the end of December 2020, the company recorded a turnover growth of more than 700%. Throughout 2020 Titipku also added 31 new traders. This was achieved thanks to the performance of about 7 thousand "explorers" (a term for application users who upload information on SMEs encountered).

While service cloud kitchen as Waku, although based in Jakarta, began to expand to other cities in Indonesia. After expanding in Medan and Denpasar, now they are also present in Bandung and Tegal. Founder & CEO Anthony Gunawan revealed, the main reason why these cities were chosen for expansion was the presence of clients anchor that need to be served.

“Besides Denpasar and Medan, we have succeeded in expanding to Bandung and Tegal as well. These four new cities are among our expansion targets in 2021," said Anthony.

Anthony added, when curating the ideal area for expansion, they refer to market opportunities and expansion demands from clients. The company also looks at other cities that have potential, even though they don't have clients in those locations yet. For tier 2 and tier 3 cities, Anthony sees the potential is still great.

"Obviously the areas that are densely packed with companies and government agencies. We are also starting to focus on areas that are densely packed with education and organizations which will become our new target market," said Anthony.

According to data from the Indonesian Information and Communication Technology Creative Industry Society (MIKTI) in May 2019, 52,7 percent of startups in the country are located in Greater Jakarta. MIKTI noted that there were 168 startups spread across Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra. A more intensive campaign or program is needed to increase the distribution of the entrepreneurial spirit throughout Indonesia.

As an organization that seeks the best potential from Indonesian startups, Endeavor Indonesia sees startups in Greater Jakarta and outside Greater Jakarta as having the same potential and opportunities. Indonesian Endeavor trying not to just focus on a particular area when doing scouting to find potential Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

“We want to find more startups that come from the region, have a unique background but have impact the big one. It could be that those who come from the lower middle class and have a concern for the environment will be our priority in the future,” said Endeavor Indonesia Chairman Arif P. Rachmat.

According to the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII), until Q2 2020, the most internet users came from the province of West Java, which was 35,1 million people. This position is followed by Central Java with 26,5 million people and East Java with 23,4 million people.