Tag: Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia – In the midst of the wave of brand platforms jumping into the metaverse, Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) in Indonesia, which is entering its 15th year, will hold its first fashion show in the metaverse. The event is in partnership with WIR Group, a technology company focusing on AR, VR, and AI. 

Svida Alisjahbana, GCM Group CEO & JFW chairwoman, said the collaboration will drive fashion industry transformation further into the digital world. She also thinks Indonesian creative and fashion industry players have good capabilities but don’t get enough opportunity. 

“Metaverse will remove this obstacle and we will have no problem entering the international market and doing business with consumers from around the globe,” said Alisjahbana. 

Gupta Sitorus, CMO of WIR Group, also commented, “This collaboration shows that the national industry trusts WIR Group. It keeps us motivated to continue developing innovations and providing technological solutions for various sectors, helping them face challenges in this borderless digital era.”

Just recently, WIR Group announced that it will be introducing a prototype of an Indonesian metaverse by November 2022 as part of the momentum of the 2022 G20 Indonesia Presidency. The group said the new platform will bridge businesses and consumers and will open new employment opportunities.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Local metaverse technology company WIR Group will be introducing a prototype of an Indonesian metaverse by November 2022 as part of the momentum of the 2022 G20 Indonesia Presidency. Through the new metaverse prototype, the company aims to enrich life experiences for individuals, companies, and societies through digital reality solutions covering augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI).

In addition, the metaverse platform being developed by WIR Group will bridge businesses and consumers. It will be the gateway that leads humans to various digital experiences, and at the same time become a platform that can provide new employment opportunities.

As part of the metaverse development, WIR Group has signed partnership agreements with various entities including Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW), retail giant Alfamart, FMCG company Kalbe Nutritionals, Indonesian independent music label Sun Eater, property developers Vasanta and Triniti Land, and many others.

It has also signed a number of memorandum of understandings (MoUs) for cross-sector collaboration to join the metaverse, with partners that include Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Negara Indonesia from the financial sector.

Michael Budi Wirjatmo, president director at WIR Group, said, “The high public enthusiasm for WIR Group, which is reflected in the large number of orders that we received, shows the market’s confidence in the company’s fundamentals and prospects. We will maintain this trust by continuing to develop innovations to provide technology solutions for businesses in various sectors to help them face the challenges of this borderless digital era.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – ​Indonesia-based telco Telkom has partnered with tech giant Microsoft to accelerate Indonesia’s digitalisation and strengthen intelligent infrastructure. This partnership is a continuation of the memorandum of understanding signed by Telkom and Microsoft in August 2021.

The partnership aims to support Telkom’s vision as the digital telecommunications company of choice in order to advance society and empower the country’s digital economy, as well as support Microsoft’s Empower Indonesia initiative. It will also explore new opportunities in the market, and empower organisations in various industry segments by leveraging the telco’s infrastructure.

Moreover, the partnership will see Telkom accelerating the level of enterprise adoption of cloud-based services and a secure cloud environment, as well as increasing competence through training and Microsoft certification. This will help TelkomGroup to increase employee productivity, simplify the collaboration process, automate work processes, increase customer engagement, and create innovation, as well as increase the efficiency of operational activities safely.

In terms of intelligent infrastructure, Telkom and Microsoft will also collaborate in developing national intelligent infrastructure. The cooperation being explored, for example, includes the use of Telkom’s Hyperscale Data Center infrastructure assets to support the country’s digital transformation journey and several operational activities for Microsoft’s upcoming data centre region in Indonesia as announced in 2021.

Ririek Adriansyah, Telkom’s president director, shared that the initiative to establish strategic partnerships with a number of global tech companies is expected to have a positive impact on Telkom’s business development, especially in the digital platform and digital services domain.

“We really welcome this collaboration with Microsoft in the hope that it will not only bring benefits to both parties, but more importantly, it can provide the greatest benefit to the digitisation of Indonesia,” said Adriansyah.

Meanwhile, Dharma Simorangkir, Microsoft’s president director for Indonesia, said, “Technology is the cornerstone of industrial digital transformation. Through strengthening collaboration with Telkom, we hope to be able to further assist Indonesia in every stage of the national digital transformation, and build personalised services that bring us closer to Digital Indonesia.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – In the spirit of the upcoming Hari Raya festivities, Indonesian financial services company PermataBank has released an ad showcasing the importance of saving goodness amidst the long-celebrated festive season.

Conceptualised alongside creative agency M&C Saatchi Indonesia, the film titled ‘#NabungKebaikan’, roughly translated to #SavingGoodness, follows the story of interactions between a father and son and teaches viewers the values of giving, sharing and caring, and how goodness comes back to people who have given.

Speaking about the ad release, Anish Daryani, founder and president director at M&C Saatchi Indonesia, said that they wanted to send out a message of goodness instead of being ‘preachy’, adding on spreading the core essence of Ramadan, while still subtly establishing the idea of savings with PermataBank.

“The #NabungKebaikan theme for Ramadan applies to an integrated campaign that extends to banking products, promotions and offers, across the PermataBank portfolio. Through this, we’d like to demonstrate how we translate how brand purpose translates to commerce, enhancing brand affinity and actual revenue for the brand,” Daryani said.

Meanwhile, Glenn Ranti, division head of marketing communication at PermataBank, commented, “Saving is not simply about how much money we save, but also about creating and maintaining the good habit. The Holy Month of Ramadan, is the right moment for us to spread the spirit of #NabungKebaikan.With that in mind, PermataBank is committed to continuing to provide various benefits and conveniences for its customers to fulfil their needs in this blessed month.”

Ranti added, “We present a variety of attractive promotions in a series of PermataBank products and services that can be enjoyed by all customers and their families.With these promotions, we are looking forward to providing added value to our customers during Ramadan, while still living up to the spirit of #NabungKebaikan.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – To honour the resilience and self-belief shown by Indonesians during the pandemic, Grab Indonesia has partnered with OTT video streaming service Viu to launch a six-part series titled ‘Cerita Tentang Percaya’, which in English translates to ‘Stories of Belief’. 

The series is inspired by real-life stories of Indonesians who persevered, dared to fail, and rose again during the pandemic. Each of the 22-minute episodes of the show, which is streamed on Viu, focuses on a different story of survival during the pandemic. It has also been timed to launch with Grab’s ad campaign ‘Percaya’, which in English translates to ‘belief’, that salutes the resilient spirit of Indonesians. 

A collaborative effort of three players – The Academy Consulting (TAC), Iron Hill Media (IHM) and Passion Pictures Indonesia (PASSION). The original concept and strategy were pitched to Grab and Viu by TAC, while IHM fleshed out the six stories, and PASSION executed the production with film director Hafiz Ibrahim.

Melinda Savitri, Grab Indonesia’s country marketing head, commented that they are pleased to have partnered with Viu for ‘Cerita Tentang Percaya‘ series, which reflects the character of Indonesians, who are known to be extremely persistent – relentlessly trying again and again to overcome challenges. 

“As an inseparable element of the nation, Grab stands and fights with all Indonesians. Through collaboration with Viu and supported by TAC, PASSION, and IHM, we want the audience to feel a connection that this is a story about all of us, a story about celebrating the fight itself,” said Savitri.

Meanwhile, Varun Mehta, Viu Indonesia’s country manager, said, “The core concept of Cerita Tentang Percaya the series appealed to us greatly and that is why we wanted to partner with Grab by providing a platform where not only these stories but also the creativity of Indonesian content can be seen by a larger audience both in Indonesia and internationally.” 

Sheen S Singh, the founder of TAC, IHM & PASSION Malaysia-Indonesia-Thailand, noted that it was a proactive initiative that was developed by the team at TAC which has found that there is a fast-growing appetite amongst the consumers for long-form entertainment and an opportunity for brands to entertain and engage with them by telling relevant stories. 

“From a creative perspective, this series was designed to entertain with the brand being a part of life versus having the stories evolve around the brand. The content we aspire to produce for brands will always put “entertainment” first to ensure it is widely viewed. We are thankful to Grab and Viu for recognising this opportunity,” said Singh.

The platform has been streaming two episodes each week with the last episode scheduled to be shown on the 27th of April.

Jakarta, Indonesia – The large majority of consumers are willing to pay a higher price for eco-labelled products, even if they are 50% higher than their old brand choices, according to data from market research company YouGov.

With the exception of gaming-related products, Indonesian consumers are willing to accept more than 80% higher prices for eco-labelled food items such as milk, rice, coffee, and tea, compared to other product categories. In contrast, at least one-fifth of consumers who would pay more for eco-labelled fashion and personal care products such as cosmetics and skincare, as well as clothing items, bath soap, oral care, footwear are only willing to accept higher prices of 10% or less.

When asked about food related items, around one-third of consumers are open to switching the brand of rice (34% of respondents), coffee/tea (33% of respondents) and milk (33% of respondents) they currently purchase in order to buy an eco-labelled one. While slightly more are willing to pay more for eco-labelled rice (35% of respondents), slightly less would be for coffee/tea (30% of respondents) and milk (30% of respondents).

Meanwhile, when asked about household appliances and furniture products, more than one-quarter are open to switching their current brand of home furniture (29%) in order to buy an eco-labelled one, while just under a quarter (24%) are willing to pay more.

Lastly, one-quarter of consumers (25%) are open to switching the brands of smartphones they currently purchase to buy an eco-labelled one, while slightly more (27%) are willing to pay a higher price for greener smartphones. But less than one in seven consumers would consider switching brands and paying more for eco-labelled cars (14%) and gaming consoles (5% to 6%).

Jakarta, Indonesia – JULO, a local fintech platform, has recently raised US$80m to facilitate access to its lending services for its growing Indonesian user base. The funding is composed of a combination of US$30m equity and US$50m credit facility.

The funding was facilitated by Credit Saison, a Japanese financial services company affiliated to Mizuho Financial Group.

The equity of US$30m will be used by JULO to develop data analysis systems, product development, marketing, and customer acquisition plans by adding human resources (HR) in the development team, data scientists and business intelligence personnel. Meanwhile, the US$50m credit facility will be allocated to facilitate loan funds on the JULO platform.

Adrianus Hitijahubessy, CEO and co-founder at JULO, said, “Until now, JULO Digital Credit has a commitment to empower the people of Indonesia, where 72% of credit applications are used for purposes of improving the quality of life such as business capital, home renovations and education. In collaboration with Credit Saison, we have the opportunity to develop JULO’s commitment further by carrying out a further revolution in the Indonesian fintech lending industry and reaching out to people who are underserved by financial services in every province of Indonesia.”

As an investor, Credit Saison will play an active role – especially in the hyper-growth phase of JULO – by making joint observations for any potential business development in the future. The following investment strategy was developed by Credit Saison through Saison Capital, a venture capital firm focused on startups with opportunities to develop financial capabilities.

Meanwhile, Kosuke Mori, senior managing executive officer and head of global business at Credit Saison, commented, “To improve financial well-being, credit innovation needs to be accompanied by an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour and needs. As a result, JULO continues to grow in the midst of the COVID pandemic situation with credit disbursement of more than US$300m to date. We look forward to working with JULO to further accelerate access to financial products and to bring about significant changes for economic development in Southeast Asia.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – Local health and wellness company based in Indonesia, Fit Hub, has announced that it is expanding its offline fitness centres to 50 branches across 15 cities by the end of 2022. The company will be opening branches in Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Bali, and Sidoarjo, as well as Yogyakarta, Solo, Gresik, and other tier-2 and tier-3 cities. 

The company said the expansion is in response to the increasing demands and needs for fitness and wellness centres that are near the neighbourhood and with excellent hygiene at reasonable rates. According to Fit Hub, the said business plan is made possible from its newly acquired USD 3 million seed funding led by Global Founders Capital (GFC), a Berlin-based venture capital firm. 

“We hope that the opening of new branches will solve the issue on lack of reachable and affordable gyms in the heart of Indonesian neighbourhood,” said Timothy Situmeang, Fit Hub’s senior growth manager.

According to Situmeang, to date, said business model has successfully captured a broader market with 40% of Fit Hub’s members being first-time gym go-ers, followed-up with huge interest in personal trainer services.

In addition, Fit Hub has announced further plans to provide accessible fitness facilities to the public by introducing mini fitness studios namely ClassHub, to be launched in Q3 2022. ClassHub will be offering specific fitness classes for a more segmented market.

Aside from the physical expansion, the company is also eyeing major enhancements to its online engagement. Fit Hub will be revamping its app to become a fitness super app, an online platform with focuses on community, personalized goals, online workouts, and e-commerce. 

“The super app is expected to gather like-minded fitness communities in Indonesia, eventually establishing a hyper-local community in each gym,” said Situmeang.

Engaging online fitness content will also be available on the app, consisting of free and premium content ranging from live and pre-recorded workouts. Accordingly, since most of Fit Hub’s members are new to the fitness world, the company said the app will have learning tools to help them use weights and exercise properly.

Furthermore, for convenience reasons, the super app will also function as a marketplace where workout enthusiasts can purchase bundling packages for online and offline fitness classes, as well as Fit Hub’s in-house products, selling apparel, healthy food, home fitness equipment, and other fitness-related goods.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Hypefast, the house of e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia, has appointed Mohammed Alabsi, former senior vice president of engineering at e-commerce platform Bukalapak, to be its new chief technology officer.

In his new role, Alabsi will be joining the senior leadership team, and will be managing Hypefast’s tech team, focusing on developing technology to support the development of the company’s end-to-end tech-driven retail ecosystem.

Alabsi is a seasoned technology leader with experience in the US, Asia, and the Middle East. He brings over 17 years of experience in the technology industry, with a proven track record of building AWS services powering the infrastructure of tech companies worldwide. He was also a founding member of Amazon’s advertising and B2B e-commerce businesses. In addition, Mohammed is active in the startup scene, advising and investing in startups across SEA and the US.

Commenting on his appointment, Alabsi said that the opportunity to build and accelerate technology innovation for Hypefast gained his attention from the start, especially the idea of developing ultra-relevant tech solutions for the e-commerce native brands in SEA based on real problems and challenges they are facing when managing their own portfolio brands. 

“We want to use this to bring innovation and effective solutions to the brands. I also look forward to building Hypefast’s new best-in-class tech team and together taking Hypefast one step closer to the company’s vision,” he added.

Meanwhile, Achmad Alkatiri, Hypefast’s founder and CEO, commented that they are excited to welcome Alabsi to their leadership team, as his diverse experience in tech makes him distinctively suited to drive innovation as Hypefast accelerates their tech-driven retail ecosystem and brings solutions to e-commerce native brands.

“His experience, combined with our best-in-class team in retail and e-commerce, will lead our continued investment in the leadership team for the industry and strengthen Hypefast’s commitment to super-charge the growth of e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia,” said Alkatiri.

Bangkok, Thailand – LaLiga Pass, the over-the-top (OTT) platform offering of Spanish football division LaLiga, will be made available to fans in Thailand, giving them access to LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank matches.

LaLiga Pass has also been made available to fans in Indonesia as part of the Asian offering of the OTT platform.

Through LaLiga Pass, fans in both countries will become the first in the world to have LaLiga Pass available for their mobile devices and televisions, a step that allows LaLiga to get even closer to its fans, making them owners of the content and allowing them to enjoy an increasingly personalised fan experience.

Along with live coverage of every LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank match, LaLiga Pass users will also have access to match round-ups, documentaries, videos of the best goals and saves, interviews and other exclusive content designed for each country.

In addition, each matchday will feature three LaLiga Santander matches narrated in the local language, something that only LaLiga Pass users will be able to enjoy.

Alfredo Bermejo, digital strategy director at LaLiga, said, “One of the keys of the entertainment sector is to be able to offer a high degree of personalisation, to speak to each fan in their own language and to provide them with quality content adapted to their tastes and needs. We believe that LaLiga Pass, and all the technology behind it, is a big step in this direction and will be a great option for those who want to enjoy LaLiga and everything that surrounds it.”

Furthermore, LaLiga Pass will also represent a new business model that will both improve the fan experience and attract more LaLiga fans as well as provide a technology that can be commercialised and exploited by other companies through LaLiga Tech.

Oscar Mayo, executive director at LaLiga, commented, “LaLiga Pass is a logical step in our audiovisual strategy. Over the last few years we have strived to improve the experience for fans watching LaLiga from different parts of the world and we now want to take things a step further by allowing them to have more control over what they watch, offering more and better content, and telling more stories around LaLiga and its clubs in those countries.”