See How Edtech Actors Are Stealing Attention During a Pandemic

Platform EdTech has been present in Indonesia since several years ago. However, its reverberation has started to skyrocket significantly in the education ecosystem this year. This happened after the government suspended teaching and learning activities to suppress the spread of Covid-19.

What did one of the perpetrators say? EdTech responding to the popularity of its services during this pandemic? Check out more interesting talks from Cakap Co-founder & CEO Tomy Yunus in the following #TuesdayStartup session:

The perpetrator's struggle EdTech paid off in 2020

Tomy assessed that the education and supporting industries in Indonesia have grown rapidly over the past few years. Indeed when he started to go into business EdTech, not a few obstacles experienced. One of them is the availability of internet infrastructure.

According to him, a few years ago the internet was still quite expensive. 4G penetration is still low. It can be said that the market is not ready for players EdTech to enter. However, he believes that the need for education will continue to increase and the distribution of the internet is only a matter of time.

On the other hand, according to Tomy, the quality of education for the Indonesian people is still far from that of developed countries, such as China. However, he saw a trend spending-it increases. From a number of studies that he cites, the Indonesian education market is increasing 10 percent every year and is one of the highest in the world.

These factors make Cakap and perpetrator EdTech others survive. The development of internet penetration has made it possible for people outside Java to receive education without the need to go to big cities. This means that the climate is much more positive than it used to be.

"During the pandemic, the perpetrators EdTech benefited. However, this is the fruit of our struggle during product development [edtech]. It all paid off in 2020 as we were given the opportunity to do more. Education is the most industry tricky and tough because the investment is long-term, it can be up to 5 years, as well as technology," explained Tomy.

Willingness Millennial segment is increasing

When compared with China, the most basic difference in educational needs is consumer spending. Tommy admitted, spending Indonesia in terms of education is still far behind. In China. people can set aside 20-30 percent to upgrade skills. 

"I don't agree that Indonesians don't like studying. Maybe it's more about the affordabilitywhich is not yet like a developed country. However, we see an increasing trend, especially in the specific skills which has to do with income," said Tomy.

According to him, the millennial segment has begun to realize the importance of investing in skill to support his future career. It means, spending not spent on products consumer, such as electronics.

"Actually the solution to overcome affordability it is from the product. Our service is now not only one-to-one, some are one-to-many. Here we empower technology to make more products scalable and can affordable. The rest, we hope the internet will be more evenly distributed because after all spending not only in packages, but also internet quotas," he explained.

Actor's commitment EdTech local wins market

According to Tomy, the market EdTech in Indonesia is still considered early and the verticals are quite far from each other, such as the segment of elementary school students to lectures or special employees.

Because there are not many players, he said, the market is starting to get a lot of attention from players EdTech foreign. Naturally, considering that Indonesia is the largest market in Southeast Asia.

"The market hasn't crowded, but this is in a positive sense. I see friends EdTech very committed local. Hence, I believe that the perpetrator EdTech local who will take benefits the biggest. We understand the market and regulations in Indonesia the best, we can even enter the retail segment, corporateand governance. We'll see if [EdTech foreigners] can win the Indonesian market," he said.

The pandemic opens up new opportunities

Not only schools are affected by the pandemic, but also thin/training and tutoring institutions (bimbel). When the government imposed PSBB, as many as 80 percent of schools had to be closed. This has an impact on tutoring institutions outside of schools because they must continue to operate.

According to Tomy, seminars and training activities for students or employees that have been held offline must also be done digitally. However, he sees the above situation as an opportunity to develop services EdTech new. Moreover, the platform he is currently developing is still focused on language learning.

"Because we saw that there was a big demand, we ventured to catermarket the. Of course there's a little adjustment to play to segment non-language. But this is a new opportunity even though we are currently only focusing on several services, such as marketing and those related to ICT," said Tomy.

golden momentum test cases platform EdTech

For Tomy, 2020 provides a golden opportunity to prove that service EdTech can solve the real problems that occur in the world of education in Indonesia. According to him, the perpetrator EdTech don't see this situation as a challenge, but rather test cases of the developed solution.

In addition to opening up opportunities to enter new segments, the pandemic also gave birth to collaborations by stakeholder in various ecosystems, not only education. In Cakap's case, his party even collaborated with the tourism industry to improve English language skills.

"We were given battlefield to prove our product. In previous years, maybe the opportunity didn't exist and this is actually what the perpetrators have been waiting for EdTech. Of course there has been a significant increase in traffic and users, but we are always seeing room improvements considering the pandemic will still take place in the future," he said.