Reviewing the Maturity of Indonesia's Digital Ecosystem Through the Three Biggest Internet Companies

In the World Startup Report graphic that released by The Economist (7/7) and containing the three largest startup companies in 50 countries, Indonesia's digital industry has yet to produce local startups that have a market value of over $1 billion -- or even $100 million. The report also positions  Good store (OLX Indonesia), Kaskus, and online news sites Seconds as three Internet companies that own market value largest in Indonesia.

For the Indonesian market, the World Startup Report graphic shows Tokobagus and Kaskus occupy the first and second positions with a market value of US$ 80 million (approximately Rp 933 billion). In the third position, the Detik website, which is now owned by one of the largest corporate groups in Indonesia, namely CT Corpora Group, is reported to have a market value of US$ 40 million (Rp 466 billion).

It can be said that if you want to see what the Indonesian internet industry looks like today, you can clearly see the picture in these three companies. Tokobagus has the power to make Indonesian people start getting to know the shopping lifestyle online, while Kaskus is a combination of buying and selling activities and providing a platform that gathers millions of Indonesians to share anything through digital forums. Kaskus has a wedge in the E-commerce and media segments.

While Seconds, which was founded in 1998, is one of the pioneers of media online and become a media site online most popular in Indonesia. Based on these data, E-commerce and online media are two segments that can be considered quite mature in Indonesia's digital realm today.

When compared to the five other Southeast Asian countries included in the World Startup Report graphic, Indonesia is only ahead of the Philippines in terms of the largest startup market value. iRemit (payment segment online) as the largest internet company in the Philippines has a value of $ 78 million.

For this region, Singapore relies on Garena, which has a market value of US$ 1 billion, and Vietnam, which is proud of VNG with the same value. Garena and VNG are Internet companies that have a wide range of products, from games to social networks. Malaysia follows with MOL (payment segment online) which is valued at US$ 800 million and Thailand with AsiaSoft Corp. (online gaming segment) is worth US$181 million.

On a global scale, the United States, China, Japan and South Korea are at the forefront of market value and ecosystem maturity with Google as the number one startup. South Africa alone has Naspers which has a market capitalization of up to $52 billion, but companies number two and three are not worth $100 million.

This comparison should not be a problem because the market conditions of each country are different. Growing the market itself can be considered an achievement in itself, which is not only the responsibility of the three largest local Internet companies, but also many local Internet companies who have hopes for the maturity of Indonesia's digital ecosystem.

[Photo illustration: Shutterstock]