Sedapur CEO: We Focused Too Much on Merchants, We Didn’t Think About the Buyers

Last week Sedapur announced that it was shutting down its services from 1st of August after two years in operation. The online food marketplace for individuals and small businesses will maintain its website until the end of the year to allow for its merchant partners to update their details and keep their customers informed.

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Why is There a Lack of Taxi Apps in Indonesia?

The proliferation of taxi apps and private car hire services around the world is inevitable with companies such as Uber, Lyft, Hailo, EasyTaxi, GetTaxi, and myTaxi leading the charge. With these apps making their ways into cities across the world, Indonesia is one of the countries which have yet to see serious play by these apps and services.

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JFDI.Asia to Select 12 Teams From 300 Applicants to its Third Boot Camp Program

Joyful Frog Digital Incubator Asia (JFDI.Asia), the Singapore-based incubator for tech startups in or focusing on Asia, has closed applications for the second intake of its accelerator program for 2013. Nearly 320 teams whose applications made it before the deadline closed on Wednesday (31/7) will be competing for 12 spots in the 100-day boot camp program.

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[DS Notes] How Does Lazada Fare Against Amazon in Southeast Asia?

ecommerce milo took a look at how Lazada is performing in Southeast Asia and comparing that with Amazon. The American retailer has yet to fully entrench itself in Southeast Asia but it does offer a number of its services to the region. Indonesia as the largest nation in Southeast Asia has yet to enjoy what Amazon has to offer aside from being able to purchase physical books, and movies and music on discs. Regardless, the numbers show that Amazon still leads in unique visits across the region although it is dropping quickly as Lazada increases its awareness and reach. Without a proper local presence, Amazon looks set to lose Southeast Asia to Lazada while Lazada CEO Max Bittner dismisses Amazon for not being on the ground, which makes things very difficult for dealing with customer service.

Indonesians Flock Online to Reserve Lebaran Holiday Travel Arrangements

Ramadan is coming to an end and that means holiday travels are rising thanks to the extended holiday period that will take place between 5-12 August in Indonesia surrounding Eid al Fitr, or Lebaran/Idul Fitri as it is called here. Travel search site Wego has released some numbers regarding this year’s holiday air travel plans which shows a marked increase in nearly all aspects of domestic and regional travels.

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[DS Notes] Bitcoin Reportedly Declared Illegal in Thailand

Bitcoin.Co.Ltd, a Bitcoin exchange service in Thailand this morning announced that the Thai government has made Bitcoin illegal in the country. The decision came following attempts by Bitcoin.Co.Ltd to seek legal foundations to turn the digital currency into a legal one. The decision came as Bank of Thailand representatives found that existing laws in the country cannot accommodate Bitcoin due to a number of factors. The central bank has reportedly outlawed any transaction involving Bitcoin within Thailand’s borders but gave no word as to when this ban will take effect, reports Ars Technica.

MavenSay Makers Release Music Based Messaging App Called Rithm

MavenSay, the Toronto-based company that launched a peer recommendation app of the same name several months ago has released a messaging app. Rithm is a free app for iOS that was built out of observing the behaviors of MavenSay users and focusing on using music as the foundation of a messaging platform using previews of songs from services such as iTunes, Spotify, and Rdio.

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Jason Lamuda: E-Commerce is a Lot Like Traditional Retail

Fashion e-commerce site BerryBenka now serve 300-500 transactions per day after its launch in late 2011. CEO Jason Lamuda revealed that he plans to raise another round of funding some time this year as the company grows in double digit percentage on a monthly basis. Lamuda had a chat with us this week about the Indonesian e-commerce landscape and shared his views on VCs looking into investing in the local Internet business scene, his competition, growth potentials, and other issues affecting Internet-based businesses.

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[DS Notes] How Facebook Platform Became How It Is Today

Hamish McKenzie over at Pando Daily has published an extensive story on the history of Facebook Platform and how it failed to meet its expectations and potentials through a series of inconsistent changes implemented by Zuckerberg. While initially Facebook Platform, which was launched in 2007, was set to be an ecosystem of applications and services that leverage the power and reach of the Facebook newsfeed, Zuckerberg eventually felt threatened by these third party apps and made changes over the years which prevented them from competing with Facebook’s own applications. In the end, Facebook as a company pales in comparison to Apple’s mobile application ecosystem which is worth multiple times the value of Facebook.

Zalora Caught Buying Google AdWords Against Small Rival Below Cepek

Here we go again, yet another brand buying a Google keyword search on a competitor’s brand mark. There was an uproar on Monday when Riana Bismarak discovered that Zalora had placed an ad against Below Cepek, her online fashion store for low cost women’s outfit. Immediately people closest to her went on to her defense and many had seen the move as being unethical.
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