As part of Dev Fest, I was on a panel with three Indonesian entrepreneurs and one entrepreneur turned VC. What impressed me about the panel was not so much the differences, but the similarities. Indonesian entrepreneurs, and aspiring ones, are grappling with the same issues as their counterparts elsewhere. But first some background about the tech scene in Indonesia.
First, mobile phone growth is exploding in Indonesia. Indonesian mobile web search queries, i.e., searches performed from a web browser on a smart phone, are the 3rd highest in the world, after the US and Japan. Anecdotally, this is evident driving around Jakarta, with the majority of people everywhere holding mobile phones, many of them Blackberrys. And I'm not just talking about the so-called "elite" district around the Hotel Indonesia (the "Ha Ee" to the locals, a beautiful hotel incidentally). Jakarta lacks high-speed mass transit and most of the driving around Jakarta is at walking speeds, so you've ample time to observe what's happening on the streets. I "squeezed" in 3 meetings over 7 hours on my first day in Jakarta, so I spent more time in the back of the car than in meeting rooms.
Second, the use of social media by Indonesians is equally impressive. Indonesia has the 3rd largest number of Facebook users (by country), after the US and the UK, and is rapidly catching up to 2nd place. Indonesians are also in love with Twitter, with ComScore reporting that 21% of the country’s internet population use Twitter. As a result, worldwide rising trends on Twitter often feature an Indonesian trend.
In short, Indonesian users are at the forefront of two exciting global technology trends that are converging, mobile and social.
Now back to the panel, introducing the panelists from left to right in the photo:
Selina Limman (@urbanesia), the founder of and CEO of Urbanesia, an online "lifestyle city directory" with a mission to make city living fun and convenient. Urbanesia blends mobile and social nicely, with business listings and user-generated content (UGC) for lifestyle and everyday needs, combined with location-based search for users to discover relevant content.
Willson Cuaca (@willsoncuaca), the co-founder of East Ventures, a new VC firm founded in Singapore, with a focus on early stage web/mobile startups in Indonesia and Singapore. EV has invested in Urbanesia and 3 other companies to date: Tokopedia, an e-commerce marketplace, Apps Foundry, a mobile apps producer for Blackberry, iPhone and Android, and Foound, a social mobile app to arrange hangouts, or is that a mobile social app?
Andrew Darwis, the co-founder and CTO of Kaskus, an online community with over over 2.1 million members, generating more than 600 million page views per month, the 6th most popular website in Indonesia and the most popular local website(source Alexa). Andrew describes Kaskus as "an info center where questions are asked and answered by the community members themselves.”
Fajar Budiprasetyo, the co-founder and CEO of Koprol, which he describes as a "geosocial network that focuses on conversation". Koprol was acquired by Yahoo back in May. Successful acquisitions like this are still relatively rare in Indonesia, but Fajar's US education and Silicon Valley experience no doubt gave him the edge.
And that guy on the right is me (@scruzin). I've done a few startups too; my last one being NetPriva which I sold to Expand Networks in 2007, the year I joined Google Australia.
See the trend? All three entrepreneurs and East Ventures are thoroughly embracing mobile and/or social opportunities.
Now for the similarities; the questions from the audience were pretty much the same as I would have expected from a similar crowd in Silicon Valley or Sydney. The following four questions are indicative.
* How do you choose between growing your company and selling it?
Answer: It depends, there's no right or wrong way.
* For web/mobile apps, what are the best monetization strategies?
Answer: there's lots of ways - ads, app marketplace sales, subscriptions, etc.
* How do you do you market your products?
Answer: good product market themselves, but failing that, use social media, build in social/viral features, such as refer-a-friend, rapid release cycles,strategic partnerships, etc.
* How can we ensure our startup succeeds?
Answer: have guts, go for it, don't worry about fear of failure, collaborate/network with your fellow entrepreneurs, never rest on your laurels, etc.
The main difference I observed is that in Indonesia today, there are relatively few local success stories; with role models in short supply, more people are still finding their entrepreneurial legs. If the enthusiasm of the participants at Dev Fest is anything to go by though, I fully expect to see some exciting innovations coming out of Indonesia in the near future. I'm already looking forward to my next trip.
Lihat nantil.