Below is a list with tagged columns and company profiles.

Today's Headlines Internet

  • Ride-Hailing Unicorn Go-Jek to Expand Beyond Indonesian Borders

    Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek, one of the nation's unicorns, confirmed its plans to expand into other countries in the Southeast Asian region. Over the next couple of months the company will invest USD $500 million to start delivering its ride-hailing services in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. Earlier, Go-Jek had already expressed its intention to expand beyond the borders of Indonesia. This time, however, it has given more details about its plans.

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  • Internet Infrastructure Indonesia: What About Progress on the Palapa Ring?

    It has been a while since we last reported on developments surrounding the Palapa Ring project, one of Indonesia's priority infrastructure projects in the 2016-2019 period. The Palapa Ring, which involves an undersea fiber-optic cable network that stretches across 13,000 kilometers as well as an onshore network of nearly 22,000 kilometers, will provide fast broadband Internet to Indonesians in both the urban and rural areas across the country. Once completed, all Indonesian districts (kabupaten) are connected through fiber-optic communication.

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  • Consolidation in Southeast Asian Ride-Hailing Industry: Uber-Grab

    The local and thriving ride-hailing market in Southeast Asia is dominated by local startups. Foreign counterparts fail to gain significant market share. The latest proof is Uber Technologies Inc.'s decision to sell its operations and assets in the Southeast Asian region to Singapore-based technology company (but originally founded in Malaysia) Grab. Through this consolidation-move, Uber will obtain a 27.5 percent stake in the combined entity, while Uber's chief executive officer will join the board of Grab.

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  • Indonesia Falls in Mobile & Fixed Broadband Speeds Ranking

    Based on Ookla's Speedtest Global Index, which ranks Internet speeds around the world, the global average mobile download speeds have grown 30.1 percent over the past year, while the mobile upload speed rose 38.9 percent over the same time. Meanwhile, the latest ranking (November 2017) also shows a 31.6 percent global speed growth for fixed broadband downloads along with a 25.9 percent increase for broadband upload speeds.

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  • By 2019, 4G Network Available in All Indonesian Cities & Districts

    Rudiantara, Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information, targets to see the availability of 4G networks across all Indonesian cities and districts by the year 2019. That year the government's Palapa Ring project is planned to be completed. This project, involving an undersea fiber-optic cable network that stretches across 13,000 km and an onshore network of nearly 22,000 km, will provide fast broadband Internet to Indonesians in the urban and rural areas.

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  • E-Commerce in Indonesia: Many Consumers Look Offline, Buy Online

    Based on a new survey, conducted by ShopBack Indonesia, two out of every five Indonesians buy a product online after having seen the product in an offline store. The survey mentions that 42.2 percent of women and 40.7 percent of men indicate that they have seen the goods directly in the physical store (offline) first and then decide to buy the goods online.

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  • Indonesia Won't Block WhatsApp Over Pornographic GIF Images

    Based on statements expressed by an official of Indonesia's Communication and Information Ministry, the government of Indonesia will not block WhatsApp Messenger, one of the most popular freeware and cross-platform instant messaging services for smartphones (owned by Facebook Inc). On Monday (06/11) the ministry said it would block WhatsApp within 48 hours if WhatsApp would fail to remove specific pornographic content.

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  • Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As) on the Rise in Indonesia

    The number of mergers and acquisitions in Indonesia rose 5.4 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 136 deals up to August 2017, mostly involving technology companies. In terms of value, on the other hand, M&As in the first eight months of the year actually fell 9.9 percent (y/y) to USD $6.8 billion. However, not all M&A deals in Indonesia have revealed the value of the deal.

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  • Facebook to Open Limited Liability Company in Indonesia

    Leading American online social media and social networking service Facebook will open a permanent business entity (a foreign limited liability company, in Indonesian: perseroan terbatas penanaman modal asing, or PT PMA) in Indonesia later this month. The move is in line with Indonesian government requests. Earlier, Facebook only operated a representative office in Jakarta.

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  • By 2019 All Indonesians Should Have Access to Internet

    Indonesia's Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara says all Indonesians across the whole archipelago will be able to enjoy Internet access by 2019. Through the Palapa Ring project, one of Indonesia's priority infrastructure projects, all cities and districts in Indonesia will have fast broadband Internet through an undersea fiber-optic cable network that stretches across 13,000 kilometers as well as an onshore network of nearly 22,000 kilometers.

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Latest Columns Internet

  • Rising Investment in Local Content for Indonesia's 4G LTE Smartphones

    Local and foreign smartphone vendors are eager to assemble 4 Generation long term evolution (4G LTE) smartphones in Indonesia. No less than 26 companies (and brand owners) have established assembly plants in Southeast Asia's largest economy with a combined investment value of USD $600 million since 2015. Of these 26 companies, 14 are local players. The number of foreign smartphone manufacturers in Indonesia is expected to grow as a new government regulation comes into force per 1 January 2017.

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  • Indonesia Wants Google to Set Up Local Company & Pay Tax

    Indonesia's Communication and Information Ministry urges American multinational technology company Google to set up a permanent establishment in Indonesia. This way Google, which is owned by US multinational conglomerate Alphabet Inc, would need to start paying taxes to Indonesian authorities. Currently, Google only has a representative office in Indonesia, while transactions and revenue generated in Indonesia are booked at Google Inc's Asia Pacific headquarters located in Singapore.

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  • Telekomunikasi Indonesia to Launch Telkom-4 Satellite in 2018

    State-controlled Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Indonesia's largest telecommunication and network provider, plans to launch its Telkom-4 satellite in 2018 through its subsidiary TelkomMetra. The Telkom-4 satellite, which will replace the aging Telkom-1 satellite, is equipped with 49 transponders that will be capable of beaming 100 Gbps mobile broadband across Indonesia, India and Southeast Asia. The USD $200 million satellite is expected to have a life span of 15 years.

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  • Indonesian Taxi Drivers Protest Against Uber, GrabCar & Go-Jek Apps

    Indonesian drivers of taxis, buses and bajaj (three-wheeled scooters) gathered on Monday (14/03) on several locations - in front of the State Palace, City Hall, and the Ministry of Communication and Information - in Central Jakarta to demonstrate against the presence of online transportation applications such as Uber Taxi, GrabCar and Go-Jek. Protestors claim that these mobile apps are operating illegally in the country (as these services are not regulated by law) and cause a decline in income for long-time established transportation services, including taxi services, bus services and the more traditional transportation services such as bajaj and ojek (motor taxi).

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  • Performance Indonesia's Telecommunication Providers Improves in 2015

    The financial performance of Indonesia's listed telecommunication and network providers improved in 2015. Indonesia's three largest listed telecommunication companies Telekomunikasi Indonesia, XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo all recorded a better financial performance last year. However, this does not mean all three companies posted net profit. In fact, only Telekomunikasi Indonesia recorded net profit. The other two companies still posted a net loss, albeit their losses were much lower compared to one year earlier. Given that Indonesia's economic growth is expected to accelerate in 2016, these companies should be able to continue growing this year.

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  • Jokowi Visits Silicon Valley; Inspiration for Indonesia's Digital Economy

    During Indonesian President Joko Widodo's visit to Googleplex, Silicon Valley (California) - headquarters of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Plug and Play - he emphasized that the government of Indonesia is committed to push for the development of the digital economy, aiming to make it the largest in Southeast Asia, worth USD $130 billion by 2020 (including the emergence of 1,000 Indonesian technopreneurs). In this context, Widodo also requested the assistance of Google, Facebook and Plug and Play in the form of IT development education.

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  • Indonesia's Low Internet Penetration Rate Curbs Economic Growth

    While Indonesia is currently in the middle of expanding its 4G network, the nation remains placed among the countries that have the poorest Internet penetration rate in the world. A recent World Bank report, titled 'World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends', zooms in on the economic and social impact that occurs when a relative large part of the population cannot be connected to the Internet or when the government fails to keep pace with the growth of technology.

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  • Mobile Phone Industry Indonesia: Smartphone Penetration Still Low

    The government of Indonesia targets to see 35 million domestically-produced mobile phones (per year) starting from 2017. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s wireless network is to be upgraded to 4G speeds by the same year (a 4G network is the new necessity for those with smartphones or tablets) although currently the country’s telecommunication operators are still in the middle of building receivers to boost 3G utilization. The government hopes to see a total of USD $4.5 billion investment in the telematics sector.

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  • Telecommunications in Indonesia: Telkom, Indosat & XL Axiata

    Despite sharp competition, slowing profit margins and a saturating voice and SMS services market, Indonesia’s telecommunications industry still has lucrative prospects as there is still room for growth in data services, value-added services and still relatively low smartphone penetration (as well as low Internet penetration). However, of the big three Indonesian telecommunication network and services providers - Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), XL Axiata and Indosat - only Telkom managed to post net profit over 2014.

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  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Visits Indonesia and Meets Jokowi

    Today, Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo (commonly referred to as Jokowi) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met in Jakarta to discuss how Facebook can be utilized for the benefit of the people and how the social media network can support Indonesian micro businesses. With nearly 70 million, Indonesia contains the world’s fourth-largest Facebook community. With a total population that numbers about 250 million people, a burgeoning middle class and relatively low Internet penetration, there remains a large untapped potential.

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