Astra Digital Becomes the Embodiment of Astra International's Future Business

After officially becoming a separate entity from automotive giant Astra International last year, Astra Digital is now increasingly focused on developing products in preparation for the digital era in the future.

Under the banner of PT Astra Digital Internasional, the company currently has four products at once which are expected to become an integrated ecosystem. Of course there will be a lot of homework that needs to be done to introduce this product.

In 2018, gradually Astra Digital release four services in the field of transportation in the form of applications and sites. These four services are Seva.id, CariParkir, Sejal, and Movic.

To DailySocial, Head of Content Astra Digital Kania Kismadi revealed, the presence of Astra Digital is a big step for the parent company to transform in the digital era.

"customer base Astra Group is big, but never gets touched by digital [services]. Hence, we started [the transformation] with these four products, in the form of website and applications,” said Kania.

These four products are self-incubated by the company. Likewise, the management is carried out by different divisions.

Kania said this year will be the year of massive product development to see the most developed services.

“2019 is the year enhancements product. We do trials and errors which one suits the user's needs. Only then will we choose which products we focus on," he said.

Currently, Astra Digital is still receiving funding from a single investor, namely Astra International. In total the company has 80 employees who are in charge of business development and 60 employees on the technology side.

Develop productmarket fit and "Astra" fit"

Born from a corporate parent, Astra Digital seeks to align their steps with current digital business actors through more massive product development. According to the company, its four products have now gone through a three-year development period.

Astra Digital has a reason why it immediately develops four services. According to Astra Digital's Head of Digital Marketing and Services Fransiscus Andry Wibisono, who is fondly called Frans, this is Astra's preparation effort to face the digital era in the future.

They are also required to do more agile to deal with the possibility of their products failing in the market. According to him, if there are ten products developed, not all of them can be accepted by the market.

"This is our preparation for 2020 and above, where millennials will be tech savvy. Hence, the [service] that was from the start offline, now we are directed to digital, “said Frans.

He assessed that the development of a single product would make it difficult for them to adapt to the changing needs of consumers. Moreover, Astra is a conglomerate that has been around for a long time. There will be challenges to transform and evolve in the digital age.

“In current conditions, we cannot wait for [product development] one by one. Of course we are very careful. We don't want our product market fit, but also Astra fit because we think about the ecosystem," he concluded.