Online Shopping Up…

Indonesians are shopping online more frequently, especially through portable devices like smartphones.

However, there is still plenty of room for growth. The value of internet-based sales in 2010 was $US230 million, only 0.1% of Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product.Deloitte

Some factors unique to Indonesia that make online shopping attractive to local consumers are:

– It’s much easier and faster than driving to a store
It saves time and money to shop online; it avoids the country’s notorious traffic jams, difficulty finding a car park, uses no petrol and is less stressful. Indonesian internet speed is also below average, but slowly improving.

– There is clear pricing
Prices in Indonesian stores for e.g. electrical goods are negotiable, with the price tag (if there is one) merely a guide or starting point. While some people like to bargain and get the best price, others with less time prefer the simplicity of fixed prices. Clear pricing also makes it easier to compare different brands with similar products.

– There is less time wasted
Indonesian shops seem to be prone to their items being frequently out of stock (kosong). If this happens on an online store, it is more likely to say so, or just not let you purchase the item.

…But Online Payment Flatlining

However, consumers only rarely pay for these products online.

Credit cards not accepted here

Many of Indonesia’s large online retailers (above) also do not offer credit card payment. Why?

– Customers are slow to trust the retailer
Indonesia has earned a reputation for credit card fraud.expat.or.id Customers therefore prefer payment on delivery, known locally as “cash and carry”. This allows customers to pay after they have checked the product matches the description; they do not need to request a refund if the product is defective or not what they ordered.

– Relatively low use of credit cards
Less than 10% of Indonesians have a credit card. Indonesia is still very much a cash-based economy.

– Inadequate online payment infrastructure
Possibly related to the previous points, no major online payment system offers payment in Indonesian Rupiah.

Rupiah pariah?

A company that wants to offer online credit card payment in Rupiah has few options; many put it in the “too hard basket” and only accept payment by bank transfer or ATM. As an example, many Indonesian domestic airlines only recently introduced online booking and payment, and even then only for Indonesian credit cards. Some smaller airlines still do not offer it at all.

Winners And Losers

Despite an unpredictable local postal service, Indonesian courier companies have struggled in the past; for example, TNT ceased domestic delivery in 2010. However, the growth of online shopping/offline payment has been a boon for couriers, increasing their revenue signficantly. Their employees not only deliver the items, but also collect payment from the client. Jakarta Post

Travel agents also often have their own “courier” who zips around town on his motorcycle, home delivering passengers’ tickets and collecting cash payments.

However, a travel agent is also an example of retail companies that need to change to remain relevant and successful. Their clients used to need to visit a travel agency in person, but now their clients can book flights direct with an airline or online travel agency.

Another example is music shops. Around the world, digital downloading of CDs and DVDs is now more popular than physical CDs, even when excluding piracy. However, no such systems (e.g. iTunes, Netflix) are available yet in Indonesia.

In conclusion, there are still many business opportunities for e-commerce in Indonesia. With some local knowledge and understanding of local culture and habits, both foreign and local entrepreneurs have the potential to do very well.

For Indonesian residents, Google Indonesia recently set up a free web-hosting service: Bisnis Lokal Go Online. Companies that enrol get a free __.web.co.id address as well as free AdWords promotion and hints/tips for increasing traffic/hits.

The winner of a poll on Twitter.com called “The Most Inspiring Tweeter” is Indonesian businesswoman Fahira Idris.

In the poll users of micro-messaging site Twitter.com were asked the question:

Who is The Most Inspiring Person on Twitter?

Winning 71% of the votes cast it appears Fahira Idris’s most inspiring ‘tweet’ to date to her legion of 9000+ followers and the one which sealed her victory was a status update in the general direction of the leader of the Islam Defenders’ Front/Front Pembela Islam (FPI), Habib Rizieq:

Dear FPI, apakah seperti itu Islam yang diajarkan Nabi Muhammad?
[Dear FPI, is that how Islam was taught by the prophet Muhammad?]

Which was likely in reference to the FPI’s recent attack on a congregation of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java.

Fahira Idris, dialoguing with the FPI's Habib Rizieq Syihab

Her initial ‘tweet’ sparked off much debate between her and FPI defenders, finally ending in a meeting between Fahira and Habib. vivanews

The runners up in the poll were Diana Adams (@adamsconsulting), who has over 31,000 ‘followers’, and Malaysian internet marketing entrepreneur Aaron Lee (@askaaronlee), who has 140,000+ followers.

“Keong Racun” (“Poisonous Snail”), penned by Bandung songwriter Buy Akur, as lip-synced by Bandung teenagers Sinta and Jojo, the video below having gotten over 2.6 million views on Youtube since being uploaded a month ago; if views of copies are included the view count reaches around 5 million:

Thanks to the video the two 19 year old university students are now national stars:

And they have imitators, like “Santo and Johan”:

Their fame has reached abroad, modestly. The “bule version” of the song, features an apparently 6 year old and a 14 year old from an indeterminate European country:

The second annual “Global Broadband Quality Study” conducted by the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics, analysed 66 countries for the level and quality of their broadband internet connectivity and speed.

Those countries which scored in the top ten, determined by a combination of speed tests and the rate of household penetration of broadband internet:

Broadband Leadership 2009 – Countries

1. South Korea
2. Japan
3. Hong Kong
4. Sweden
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. Singapore
8. Luxembourg
9. Denmark
10. Norway

The bottom ten:

• 57.  Thailand
• 58.  Vietnam
• 59. Morocco
• 60. Pakistan
• 61. South Africa
• 62. India
• 63. Indonesia
• 64. Egypt
• 65. Kenya
• 66. Nigeria

Indonesia’s household broadband internet penetration figure was a meagre 1%, equal with Pakistan, Kenya, and Nigeria. Year on year no improvement had been recorded in percentage of households with access to broadband.

Click image.

Indonesia’s broadband quality level was given as 21%. The country had the fourth lowest download speed recorded and the third worst upload speed. Latency levels were 10th worst, at just over 200 milliseconds.

Relative to GDP

The Indonesian economy was classed as moving from Stage 1 (Factor-Driven) to Stage 2 (Efficiency-Driven), with Stage 3 (Innovation-Driven) remaining in the distance.

BQS=Broadband Quality Score

Broadband Leadership 2009 – Cities

242 cities were tested, with the top ten world cities for fastest and most widely available broadband:

1. Yokohama, Japan
2. Nagoya, Japan
3. Kaunas, Lithuania
4. Sapporo, Japan
5. Seoul, South Korea
6. Malmo, Sweden
7. Osaka, Japan
8. Wuhan, China
9. Uppsala, Sweden
10. Sofia, Bulgaria

Two Indonesian cities were tested, Jakarta, ranking 230th, and Surabaya, 233rd.

The news website Liputan6’s Health section has recently run a series of sex advice columns, like the “Six Mistakes Men Make During Sex“, the mistakes being: l6

1. Over enthusiasm, being too randy and skipping foreplay
2. Penetrating too deep
3. Thrusting from the waist area instead of moving the hips
4. Eating too much goat meat
5. Forcing themselves when they are not fit
6. Withdrawing too quickly and then rudely going to sleep

While another piece titled “How to Make Love in a Car Comfortably” is a translated version of an AskMen.com article in the United States, and recommends the following areas for vehicular love making:

• front passenger seat
• back seat
• outside, like on the bonnet/hood
• while driving

Rose, a commentator on the Liputan6 article, warns that this kind of advice is not suitable for Indonesians or in accordance with eastern values, while another commenter advises l6

Get a room!

Other articles in the series include a comprehensive 12 point guide to orally pleasuring one’s wife, discussion of one night stands, masturbatory issues, and instructions on how to measure a penis correctly. l6

In the latter piece, “Self Confidence & Measuring Your Mr P” those who are ready to get out a ruler are told to measure from the upper side of the shaft, not the lower, which is cheating.

It is said that average penis length when erect, as reported by an American website, is 13 to 15cm. More than that, and you can be pretty happy with yourself. However these ‘average’ numbers are based on American studies, and there is no mention of whether Indonesian men are likely to measure up.

Any person who follows Indonesian news closely could not have missed the story of Prita Mulyasari. Prita is a 32-old housewife who in an e-mail titled “Penipuan (Fraud) Omni International Hospital Alam Sutera Tangerang” to friends complained about the diagnosis and treatment she received from Omni Hospital in Banten. That e-mail became public on the internet and has been spread to numerous mailing lists. The Omni Hospital became aware of this and decided to charge her with defamation.  Prita lost a civil case and was ordered to pay a Rp. 261 million fine.

Prita Mulyasari

But after being named a suspect of violating Article 27 of the Electronic Information Transaction Law and Articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code Prita have been detained in Tangerang women’s prison prior to her trial. This was the moment for the Indonesian internet community to come into action and express their outrage. A Facebook cause group called DUKUNGAN BAGI IBU PRITA MULYASARI, PENULIS SURAT KELUHAN MELALUI INTERNET YANG DITAHAN has reached over 250,000 members and a website dedicated to the cause is sometimes unreachable because of heavy traffic.

Because of this mounting public pressure Prita has been released from prison and put under city arrest prior to her trial. All presidential candidates have visited her (Megawati) or voiced their support for her. The Attorney’s General Office is planning to question Tangerang prosecutors, who apparently also received free medical care from the hospital, about their decision to charge Prita. Furthermore the House of Representatives’ Commission IX on population, health, manpower and transmigration has called on the Omni International Hospital, Tangerang to drop its libel suit.

Ika Ardina, 38, an office manager and mother who lives on the outskirts of Jakarta, was upset with hearing the news a mother ended up in jail because she complained. At first she contacted members of a online mother’s group she recently joined but this didn’t result into any action. Things really started off when she created the afore-mentioned cause page on Facebook. On the power of social networks she commented:

“I never thought it was going to have this impact. I was just trying to find a way to channel my anger over this injustice we’d witnessed”

Many others have lauded the power of virtual online communities but the very same power has also brought Prita into trouble. She said:

“I am confident that technology, such as the Internet and Facebook can lead to good things — but it can also lead to bad things, like my case for example. I am still traumatized by my three weeks in jail. I used to be active on the Internet and on my FB account, but not after this,”

Sources:

• Facebook – DUKUNGAN BAGI IBU PRITA MULYASARI, PENULIS SURAT KELUHAN MELALUI INTERNET YANG DITAHAN
• Jakarta Globe – People Power, Digital Style
• Bebaskan Ibu Prita Mulyasari!

A conference of Islamic students and clerics called “Forum Bathsul Masail (BMP) Putri XI”, and held at the Putri Hidayatul Mubtadi-aat Islamic boarding school for girls at Lirboyo in Kediri has been widely reported to have issued a fatwa against the usage by Muslims of social networking sites such as Friendster and Facebook.

Muchammad Nabil Haroen on Facebook

However the man who started the controversy, a spokesman for Lirboyo school, Muhammad Nabil Haroen (or Harun), says:

I too have a Facebook account.

Nabil said that Facebook, any form of online chatting, particularly with foreign men suarasurabaya, or telephones and SMS allowed young, unmarried people to consort with people of the opposite sex, and that this was haram, but if such sites were used for spreading the message of Islam, or for business relations, or innocent getting-to-know-you, or similar such non-sinful activities then there was no objection. vivanews

It’s like a knife, if it’s used for cooking it’s good, if it’s used for killing it’s bad.

Many reports had stated that 700 clerics from Java and Madura had attended the conference and declared Facebook haram, but Nabil says

This was just a routine meeting, there were 700 delegates from Islamic schools for girls, they’re students not clerics.

Apart from the internet the BMP meeting also discussed the issue of election posters that showed the faces of women, and decided that this was permissible within limits. The matter of Ponari the child healer was also brought up, and condemned as superstition. tempo

Muchammad Nabil Haroen’s Facebook pals.

All issues discussed arose from questions from ordinary Muslims about the rights and wrongs of various things, and the Facebook/Friendster item was one of eight others the meeting dealt with. vivanews vivanews

With a population of 200+ million of whom about 25 million have access to the internet Indonesia will naturally figure highly in worldwide statistics and data detailing usage of popular websites, while for social networking and ‘elite’ techno type sites Indonesians tend to pre-dominate disproportionately in the stats.

Mass Market – Social Networking

The social networking sites Friendster and Facebook, both of which allow you to connect with ‘friends’.

This graph from Google Trends estimates the number of daily users from Indonesia in the last 12 months to friendster.com and facebook.com:

Facebook with north of 2 million Indonesian visitors a day and Friendster heading southwards but still with a million uniques.

According to Google Trends Indonesians account for the greatest number of users of Friendster by country:

1. Indonesia
2. Philippines
3. Malaysia
4. United States
5. Singapore

While for Facebook Indonesia is fourth in raw numbers terms:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Italy
4. Indonesia
5. France

Tiny Technorati Market – Plurk & Twitter

Plurk and Twitter are micro-blogging or micro-messaging sites where users chronicle and share the things they do, the way they feel, and any other things they feel like mentioning, in a very brief way.

Plurk with about 30,000 daily visitors from Indonesia, Twitter rapidly catching up and likely to overtake shortly.

Country rankings for Plurk:

1. Taiwan
2. Indonesia
3. Philippines
4. United States
5. China

And for Twitter, Indonesia is just in the top ten:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Japan
4. Canada
5. Germany
6. Australia
7. India
8. Brazil
9. Indonesia

Faith Freedom Indonesia

The full bore anti-Islam forum site Faithfreedom, run by Ali Sina, has nine non English language versions, including an Indonesian one, or did until today.

The site has been shut down by its operators after it attracted the attention of various political and religious authorities in Indonesia, such as the Clerics’ Council/Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) and the Justice Party/Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS).

Ikhwan Syam of MUI asked the Department of Communications to take action against the site okezone, while President of PKS Tifatul Sembiring said the PKS may stage public demonstrations okezone [both speaking before the site shut down].

Currently the home page of this site contains a message explaining that in the interests of inter-religious harmony in Indonesia the forum has been closed:

Mulai hari ini tanggal 19 Nov 2008, admins/moderators menutup forum ini demi terciptanya keharmonisan beragama di Indonesia. Forum ini adalah milik dan dikelola oleh www.faithfreedom.org, Dr. Ali Sina. Dengan ini admins/moderators tidak lagi terlibat dalam bentuk apapun dalam forum ini, dan meminta maaf bila kehadiran forum ini telah meresahkan masyarakat Indonesia.

Specifically, the main complaint against indonesia.faithfreedom.org is that it hosted two comic strips, entitled “Muhammad and Zainab” and “Muhammad and Hafsa”, in colloquial Indonesian language, which portray the prophet Muhammad in terms likely to be highly offensive to most Muslims, including in sexual poses.

An archived version of the FFI forum can be viewed here.

Blogs – Lapo Tuak

Later, the Minister of Communications Muhammad Nuh vowed to prosecute the owner of any blog, or presumably website in general, who displays insulting pictures and cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, according to the recently passed Electronic Information Act (see Internet Blocking & Regulation).

Another website which has recently come under public scutiny, Lapo Tuak Batak (means Warung Tuak), a hosted wordpress blog, had its contents removed by its operator, and now has been suspended by WordPress, see http://lapotuak.wordpress.com/. This blog also hosted the offending comic strips, and the blogger at the helm is believed have made the Indonesian translation.

Blurred version of cartoons (produced by Okezone).

Mutammimul Ula of the PKS complained that the contents of Lapo Tuak Batak were gross and pornographic and extremely upsetting for Muslims, but advised people not to take the law into their own hands and seek revenge. antara

November 22nd. The Department of Communications has sent a request to WordPress.com for the latter to reveal the identity of the blogger at lapotuak.wordpress.com. Whether WordPress acceded to the request or not police enquiries would continue and a spokesman for the Department claimed that the digital forensic laboratories of the police force would be put to work to find out the blogger’s, (who may go by the name “Coppertone”) identity. tempo

The first edition of the James Riady owned Jakarta Globe came out today, it seems, here is the front page:

Anyone who’s seen a physical copy feel free to give your impression.

Their website, well, difficult to say anything much about it other than that it is simple, simple is good, although for a national newspaper you would have expected a fair bit more. It sort of looks like somebody slapped it up in an afternoon. Perhaps they have plans in this area, or perhaps they have spent the last few months of preparation for launch sound asleep.