Bonceng Optimism Enters the Realm of "Ride Hailing"

Duopoly Gojek and Grab not thrilling local players to participate and plunge into the realm ride hailing. This time it was Bonceng's turn to start showing off. In fact, this startup has been around since October 2018, but it did not accept new partners because it wanted to focus on strengthening systems and services to be more serious.

"At first I wanted to just make an application to find passengers, it turns out [to run this ride hailing] as a whole requires strong infrastructure support. That's why we started building supporting infrastructure, operations, to the payment system. Until November [2018] it doesn't exist, it's still just an application "explained the CEO piggyback Faiz Noufal to DailySocial.

While building infrastructure, the company also builds business verticals outside ride hailing which is actually not much different from what is offered Gojek nor Grab in the form of Gift, Wrap, and Market. Some of them have been released, although Bonceng himself has not made his presence official yet.

For market services, for example, the company has partnered with 10 traditional markets in Jakarta to provide vegetable products in the application. This concept is claimed to be different. Bonceng recruits traditional market managers to coordinate vegetable products to be sold from market traders.

Faiz sees traditional markets being sidelined by the presence of modern retail outlets. Although in terms of the content presented, it is actually fresher because traditional markets do not have storage warehouses.

"Even in that market the QC is more thorough, if there is something rotten it will be thrown away. But the problem is now in a quiet market, we want to help them get consumers who shop through digital platforms."

In the future, it is hoped that this service can be expanded to 100 traditional markets in Jakarta. The number of driver-partners who join is claimed to be around 3 people, spread across Jabodetabek.

Regarding the payment system, LinkAja is the provider partner. The original plan was to attract Bank Mandiri e-cash, but the technical integration process was delayed until LinkAja officially started operating.

"Our application already has the LinkAja logo, but it can't be used yet because it's still waiting from LinkAja. Later, they will give promotions."

Get local government and BUMD in location expansion

Faiz emphasized that in the business vertical that was built there was an aspect of collaboration with local actors which was summarized in the program Our Archipelago. The purpose of this program is to realize community management together with the community in the local area.

When Bonceng expands to a new location, the company will engage local governments and BUMD as partners to manage Bonceng directly so that they can make a real contribution in their respective areas.

These partners are the bridges for acquiring driver partners, promoting services, integrating local government services with Bonceng, and much more. This concept has been implemented in Labuan Bajo, Tual, Ambon, and Sibolga. Faiz is quite confident that this superior program can bring Bonceng to compete with big players.

"In big cities, services like ours will be difficult to get the market's attention. But in the regions it is very much needed because transportation costs there are very expensive. There is economic inequality here."

The company is also preparing for the release of the Bonceng Bisnis application which will become a tools main for Market, Wrap, and Corporate Gift merchants.

So far, the whole process is still done manually. In the market, for example, the Bonceng team still needs to update prices and vegetable products regularly.

This concept is also Bonceng's way of monetizing. Faiz claims that no commission is taken for every transportation transaction taken by the driver-partner. However, there is a commission quoted when using a business vertical outside of transportation.

Faiz emphasized that so far the company does not have any external investors. Over time, after seeing Bonceng's development, he admitted that there were a number of investors who were interested in providing funding, although no further decisions had been made on this matter.