Kaskus Transformation: A Thousand Ways to Bring "Kaskuser" Back

Maybe almost all children from the 90s or early 2000s know very well what Kaskus is and must have accessed it. I don't know if I want to read something or get a recommendation article from a friend.

Remembering Kaskus is like being nostalgic. All topics can be discussed there. What I remember the most was content that was witty but informative. Kaskuser is really creative in writing.

Indeed, the concept of the UGC article (user-generated content) at that time it was not widely available, so there was no other alternative portal that could be accessed by young people. Be it a news portal or another forum as big as Kaskus.

Buying and selling of goods can occur through the Buy and Sell Forum. There is no Tokopedia, Bukalapak, or Shopee yet with the endless free fare promos. Look for items that you want to sell, set a price, and don't forget to enter the message "Negotiable is smooth, it's too much to throw bricks."

If you want to find stuff, you can post a thread. No need to be tired looking for stalls, when the thread is finished soon someone will send a message or send an SMS directly. Negotiate the price, make an appointment with the seller, the goods are accepted.

Kaskuser doesn't have many options, whether it's accessing information and goods transactions, making Kaskus the prima donna. Anything must go through Kaskus.

I remember very well in my mind, when I came home from school, I casually went to the internet cafe just for Kaskus, then opened all the tabs that were included in the Hot Thread, while installing a song from the Winamp application which was always ready on the PC cafe.

After reading all the tabs, I clicked on the recommendation thread from Kaskuser which is usually displayed at the bottom. Don't forget to read some responses from Kaskuser. I did this habit until I was in school. When mobile phones are a little more sophisticated, I slowly switch to mobile sites.

I have bought and sold goods several times through FJB. Most of the electronic products, such as mobile phones, tablets, mice, keyboards, laptops, to cameras. During the transaction at FJB, thankfully, there has never been a bad incident.

It turns out that my Kaskus ID was created since 2010. But I have never created a thread, aka silent reader. It's almost rare to leave comments from every thread I read. Even yesterday I checked the status of Kaskus ID still "newbie".

Minimal innovation breakthroughs until political content alights

From the start, Kaskus was only focused on written content because it wanted to position itself as a discussion forum. The UI/UX display continues to be tweaked to suit the reader and the times.

Every time Kaskus performs a display update, there are always pros and cons. In a display update that Kaskus announced recently, a Kaskuser said that layout, engine or other updates are not needed because the most important essence of Kaskus is its simplicity as a discussion forum, not too many buttons because he finds it confusing.

The production of written content is felt to be increasingly challenging because of the increasing number of news portals that have the concept of UGC, social media platforms, and social media platforms messaging. Don't forget the smartphone factor and data network support, which are increasingly affordable.

Everything changes the human lifestyle in communicating and accessing information. This rapid change made Kaskus seem lost. Want to follow platforms A, B, and C, how to remain a role model for every digital company.

The experience of having trouble finding original content I feel for myself. After a hiatus for so many years, recently I've been idly opening Kaskus. If you check the thread based on "More Popular" most of them are politically charged. The algorithm feels messy.

Once he found interesting content, it turned out to be an adaptation from another media portal. My expectation to get entertaining content is now hard to find on Kaskus. Unlike before, just check the Hot Thread, it's guaranteed that the content is interesting and original.

The most phenomenal thread ever made at Kaskus was the serialized story of the Invisible Family in 2016 and a film version was made the following year. This content managed to attract more than 13,8 million Kaskuser and got more than 7.600 comments. This thread is the most read Kaskuser.

The innovations made by Kaskus have not been so drastic. Still limited to the development of existing products. One Kaskuser thought that since 2014 Kaskus began to find political content that made him lazy to return because the debate was considered unhealthy. This comment was taken seriously by other Kaskuser by marking this year as the era of Kaskus' decline.

When viewed from timelineFrom 2015 to 2016, Kaskus built features that subtly prevented Kaskuser from switching to other platforms. For example, Kaskus Plus for premium memberships, Buying and Selling applications, Kaskus Chat, perfecting FJB with KasPay, KasAds, BranKas, and the end point is initiating Kaskus Networks to "patch" content gaps.

Efforts will continue until 2017 is marked by the launch Kaskus Creator to encourage Kaskuser to make money through the content they produce. Kaskus switched to participate for funding in ProPS which led to the election of former ProPS Founder & CEO Edi Taslim as CEO of Kaskus.

Kaskus track record to add to the portfolio does not stop at Garasi.id, it is forwarded to prose.ai and Legal Contract. During Edi's leadership, Kaskus finally plunged into video and sound content through presence TV and Podcasts.

To DailySocial, Kaskus CEO Edi Taslim believes that the presence of these two products is Kaskus' effort to remain relevant but consistent in highlighting the strength of its content.

"Hopefully, the three channels that we present can be the strength and differentiation of Kaskus, as well as meeting the needs of discussion and interaction from the community regarding interests and hobbies," he said.

Regarding investments in Prosa.ai and KontakHukum, Edi said Kaskus and Prosa.ai are still in the development process to apply Prose Text for filtering hoax content at the Kaskus Forum. It is hoped that it will be implemented in the near future.

In my opinion, this anticipation can be said to be too late but also not. Because this podcast is still a new thing for Indonesians to consume information. Kaskus has an opportunity there.

However, the habit of Indonesians to consume videos has begun to form since YouTube came into existence and is increasingly being emphasized through various other well-known social media platforms. Moreover, content creators on YouTube were mushrooming long before Kaskus TV arrived.

I myself have tried Kaskus TV and Podcasts. Impression, I prefer Kaskus Podcast because it is installed as a widget on Kaskus main site and not autoplay. The content is also original and interesting because it is taken from a thread uploaded on Kaskus.

Unlike Kaskus TV, videos are made autoplay thus giving the impression Kaskuser was forced to watch it. The only options available are pause video manually and let video buffer automatically.

This option is of course detrimental for Kaskuser with a limited data quota and reduces the impression for Kaskus TV. Judging from the content, I don't think it's much different from what people usually consume on YouTube. Although it is claimed that the technology used prevents people from committing piracy, it still takes time for Kaskus TV to get it timing-New.

Again because late saw an opportunity, Kaskus lost timing. Previously, according to many people, including myself, Kaskus had a great opportunity to raise FJB. Look now how FJB, its reputation has fallen.

Edi claims that since Kaskus TV was launched in September 2018 it has reached 1,3 million unique viewers. This figure exceeds the target of 1 million unique viewers which he mentioned at the inaugural launch. Kaskus TV has eight original programs and collaborates with more than 30 partners to produce 720 kinds of videos.

Meanwhile, for Kaskus Podcast, there are six original programs in collaboration with six podcast partners. It provides a podcast studio to facilitate community or program collaboration in the future.

Slump position

Kaskus' ranking on Alexa (15) and SimilarWeb (25) feels far from being ranked in the top 10 in Indonesia, as of December 2018. With IDN Media (ranked 13th according to Alexa), in fact including the nascent UGC media, Kaskus has already conceded.

However, if you look at it as an online community forum, the Kaskus powerhouse has not been invincible in Indonesia for 19 years. According to SimilarWeb, Kaskus had a total of 53,76 million visits, up 8,36%. Average length of visit 4:50 minutes and bounce rate 64,9%. Kaskuser reads about 2,92 pages per visit.

From Kaskus internal data, currently registered Kaskuser reaches 10,4 million, while the number of active visitors is more than 26 million per month. UGC content produced annually reaches 1,5 million thread.

Edi said that the content that is currently interesting for Kaskuser and non-Kaskuser is a thread originating from The Lounge forum which generally discusses the latest issues or trends. Then there are threads from the News & Politics forum, Stories form The Heart, 4 Wheel Vehicles, World of Work & Profession, Android, Job Vacancies, Supernatural, and Video Lounge.

I'm sure all these numbers are not something to be proud of because in its heyday Kaskuser was willing to spend hours accessing Kaskus alone. The lower the bounce rate, of course, the better for the site because the content produced is read by many people.

There is one Kaskuser that I found making a thread about Kaskus changes from time to time. In June 2011, Kaskus entered the top 10 most visited sites using Opera Mini. Another post, showing that in August 2015 Kaskus was still in 7th place on Alexa, then at the beginning of the month sag 8th.

If Kaskus TV and Kaskus Podcast in the near future cannot contribute to the company. This means that Kaskus has to rack his brains again to restore its glory. Holding competitions with the community, such as Kaskus Battleground to engage the e-sports industry, or holding music events that have recently been actively carried out, have not been optimal to boost Kaskus' position as an online community forum.

I caught some comments from Kaskuser accusing this decline because Kaskus changes too often template, even though according to him this makes Kaskus lose his character. Next is the Kaskus admin who is considered too rigid because he often bans users, unlike in the past, which was very mixed up. Especially when there is input from Kaskuser, the answers from the moderators are assessed template.

The presence of too many ads is finally considered annoying because Kaskuser considers Kaskus too profit-oriented. Though roughly speaking, as a company, Kaskus does have to do monetization in order to support its employees. However, the method taken is not pleasing to the Kaskuser.

Determine position

Kaskus position is facing hard in two areas, media/social media and classified ads (classified ads). As if to be a double-edged sword, you must really know your position so that Kaskus can still exist.

Before Edi, the position of CEO of Kaskus was vacant after the departure of Ken Dean in 2016. At that time, On Lee, who was also the CTO of both Kaskus and GDP Venture, held the leadership interim. Andrew Darwis now occupies the position of Founder and CCO.

In an interview, Edi once said that as CEO he would focus Kaskus on his khittah as an online community forum by prioritizing the element of discussion.

Edi's work in the media industry, especially in building the Kompas Gramedia Group, the Techno Chip magazine, Kompas.com, and his other achievements can no doubt be sufficient provisions for Kaskus. Under his leadership, I hope Kaskus can be more aggressive in innovating and no longer stagnate.

Often sitting together with Kaskuser and talking about the future might be able to bring Kaskus back to work. After all, many of Kaskuser's complaints that have been spilled through threads want management to roar chat together.

Kaskus is currently still alive because of Kaskuser's support. Don't let Kaskus' position fall further, until finally it's just a memory.