Pluang Adds Crypto Asset Instruments for Investment Portfolio Diversification

Entering the end of the year, Pluang released another new investment product on its platform. This time with crypto assets trading, starting with Bitcoin and Ethereum as digital currencies with the largest capitalization value today. The company cooperates with Zipmex as a partner in the transaction.

There are two reasons why Pluang chose Zipmex to integrate into its platform. First, because it has been registered with BAPPEBTI as a crypto exchanger. Second, Zipmex uses BitGo as custodian, with protection (insurance) issued by Lloyd.

Pluang’s Co-Founder, Claudia Kolonas said, “The objective for Pluang to launch this product is to open wider access for Indonesian people into the financial products worldwide.” She also said that one of the priority is to make the transaction/investment process more practical.

“Crypto sales on the Pluang application can be done in real-time. Pluang users can buy, sell, and store crypto tokens in the application comfortably because they are protected by insurance. Currently, deposits and withdrawals can only be made in Rupiah, but we will consider crypto withdrawal features at a later date,” Claudia explained.

Previously, Pluang was known as a gold investment platform. In September 2020, they released the S&P 500 futures investment instrument, allowing Indonesians to invest through a public company in the United States.

Crypto asset is not a popular investment instrument

The decision to add crypto assets into its investment product line tends to be “brave” amid the so-so public interest to invest in digital currencies. It was validated by research we conducted with Populix last July 2020. From a survey of 209 respondents who used digital investment services, mutual funds (67%), gold (62.7%), and stocks (44.5%) were the most chosen instruments.

Research by Pluang involves a larger number of respondents, around 5500 people, has discovered almost the same results. Gold (32%), stocks (15%), and mutual funds (16%) were the most popular. Meanwhile, very few respondents choose crypto assets for their investment.

Regarding this matter, Claudia said that her main objective was asset diversification. “Having an investment allocation in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies can provide broad diversification against traditional portfolios, which are usually stocks or bonds,” she said.

Research by Pluang suggests that Bitcoin is the asset with the highest yield in the past year – compared to gold, the S&P 500, and the US dollar. The data obtained is from the beginning of the year to October 2020. The yield is calculated in the conversion of rupiah currency.

Perbandingan imbal balik produk investasi dalam rentang satu tahun terakhir / Pluang — Comparison of the investment products in the past year / Pluang

Crypto assets such as Bitcoin have fairly high market volatility, the up and down is based on public confidence in the digital currency. If you look at the trend in recent times, the price even dropped to $3000.

On that basis, Claudia also suggested that crypto asset products are suitable for long-term investment. “We do not recommend buying Pluang cryptocurrency if there is an urgent need for funds in the short term. So apart from having a moderate to high-risk profile, this product is also recommended for investors who already have investment experience,” he explained.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
Header: Depositphotos.com

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Beverage Brand “Haus!” Becomes Sembrani Nusantara’s First Portfolio, Secured 30 Billion Rupiah Funding

BRI Ventures (BVI) through the Sembrani Nusantara Venture Fund invests for the first time in non-fintech startups. It’s also not a technology service developer startup, but a new economy. It is the local beverage brand developer Haus! in the Series A funding round. The nominal has reached 30 billion Rupiah, as well as being Sembrani’s debut investment to startups.

It is said that BVI is completing several other investments through the new managed fund, which will be announced soon. As previously stated, Sembrani Nusantara‘s goal is to find and foster local startups in order to foster a sustainable SME ecosystem.

Since it was founded in 2018 by Gufron Syarif, currently Thirsty! already has 113 branch outlets in the Jabodetabek and Bandung areas. The market segmentation is Gen-Z and millennial, offering a variety of drinks and bread at relatively affordable prices, starting from IDR 5,000.

“With the Series A funding, we support SMEs to move up their game for greater scalability and carry out their expansion outside Jabodetabek. The B2C segment for this category is still very wide and we hope to open up collaboration spaces with an integrated ecosystem,” BVI’s CEO Nicko Widjaja said.

Meanwhile, Haus! CEO, Gufron Syarif said that his current focus is on bringing the business into a wider segment of society, while still promoting affordable products with good quality.

“We have a different strategy from the high-end brands on the market today. We believe that selling beverage and food products at affordable prices can attract more consumers in Indonesia. From the customer experience aspect, we design it in such a way that our outlet can provide convenience for all groups of society,” Gufron added.

The fresh beverage business, which targets a similar segment, is on the rise. Some local venture capitalists (who are used to investing in digital startups) are also starting to get there. Also Alpha JWC Ventures with Goola, Hangry, and Kopi Kenangan; then there is also East Ventures which builds and invests in Fore Coffee.

Covid-19 has definitely had an impact on the F&B industry, but at the same time tests the business mentality of its founders. Some who choose to continue to accelerate their business, carry out the transformation to take advantage of the existing range of services. For example, what Haus! did, when there were social restrictions in the city, they optimized the use of ride-hailing services such as GoFood or GrabFood.

It has not been announced whether after this funding Haus! will also focus on developing digital lines to improve various aspects of the business – just like what several other startups have done. It’s just certain, if the existing players tend to play in the upper-middle segment, Haus! is stil exploring the broader mid-market segment.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Finch Capital Leads Pintek’s Follow-on Funding

Education-focused p2p lending platform Pintek announced undisclosed follow-on funding led by Finch Capital. Accion Venture Lab, as the previous investor in pre-Series A also involved in this round. There were several other investors involved without being mentioned.

It is said that the total funding that Pintek has received with this round has reached $5 million (over 70 billion Rupiah). The fresh fund will be used to develop products and technology, as well as continue education so that Indonesians are familiar with education loans.

Pintek’s Co-Founder and SoCap’s CEO, Ioann Fainsilber said, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Pintek services experienced strong growth with revenue increasing by 12 times from the beginning of the year to September 2020, compared to the same period last year.

He said, this growth validates the company’s proposition to drive the entire education ecosystem, finance students, educational institutions, and suppliers of educational needs. “We have also adapted Pintek services to the needs during the pandemic, such as helping schools to finance digitalization and running an effective online learning environment,” Fainsilber said in an official statement, Tuesday (12/1).

Fainsilber continued, collaboration with investors such as Finch Capital and Accion Venture Lab will enable companies to develop teams, build platforms that provide smart financial solutions for better education, and enable inclusive and high-quality education for all Indonesians.

Managing Partner of Finch Capital Hans De Back also gave his statement, “We hope that Pintek will become a comprehensive solution for all needs from the perspective of students, educational institutions, to other educational supply companies. We are very pleased to have supported Pintek since his first term and are now moving into the next phase of growth,” he said.

The Finch Capital portfolio in Indonesia, apart from investing in Pintek, they also invested in Jojonomics, TADA, and Halofina. Previously, Finch Capital and Telkom created a new managed fund for the Arise Fund with a target fund of $40 million (around 565 billion Rupiah). This fund is to be focused on bridging the solution gap in post-seed to series A.

Pintek Instant service

Pintek is owned by SoCap, a company that focuses on growing businesses that facilitate cooperation, exchange, and innovation for social impact in a country. The company was founded in 2018 and is registered with AFPI as a member.

During this pandemic, the company released the Pintek Instant which is an upgraded version of the Pintek Students. This product is able to do credit approval in one hour. However, the credit limit that can be submitted is IDR 5 million with tenor varies of 30 days and 90 days, and interest of 2.19% (specifically for 90 days).

In a press conference held by the company previously, the education sector was deeply affected by the prolonged Covid-19 outbreak. The first is the increasing unemployment rate and the decreasing income of most people.

On the other hand, around 69 million students lost access to education during this pandemic, only 40% of Indonesia’s population has internet access. Educational institutions are automatically affected because they need funds to digitize teaching and learning activities.

To date, the company has collaborated with more than 80 formal and non-formal educational institutions through its Pintek Institutions and Pintek Students products. The total education financing that has been channeled reaches more than 70 billion Rupiah to more than 100 institutions and 3 thousand students spread across 26 provinces in Indonesia.

Apart from Pintek, Indonesia also has several similar services such as Danadidik, Installment, to KoinPintar from Koinworks.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Desty Secures Seed Funding from East Ventures, Developing Services to Support Social Commerce

Social commerce infrastructure provider startup Desty announced an undisclosed seed funding from East Ventures. The fund will be used for product development and boost user acquisition.

Desty was founded in October 2020. It is a digital platform that helps content creators, influencers, and merchants on social media create online destinations to market, sell their products and content.

Desty’s CEO and Founder, Bill Wang explained, Desty was designed in a challenging condition, but he believes that digital acceleration provides opportunities for growth. “Desty is here as a local, simple, and free solution for online businesses to create landing pages and build their own online brand in just minutes,” he said in an official statement, Tuesday (12/1).

East Ventures’ Co-Founder and Managing Partner Willson Cuaca added, the number of online businessmen in Indonesia has grown rapidly since last year because they are shifting to open online stores. He sees that Desty’s team, which combines global and local expertise, is able to create a product that can draw the attention of thousands of users, just a few weeks after being launched.

“We are very pleased to work with Desty in helping millions of online merchants and content creators in Indonesia integrate their businesses across various e-commerce and social media platforms,” Willson added.

Desty has two products, Desty Page and Desty Store. Desty Page is a landing page provider service that is optimized for links on social media accounts, especially Instagram – the concept is similar to Linktree or Oneblink developed by MTARGET. Meanwhile, Desty Store provides a platform to easily open an online store, as a complement to the marketplace.

Despite the early stage, Desty is said to have succeeded in attracting thousands of users, including online brands (Alowalo, Babycare, Notbad), content creators (Mindblowon Studio/Tahilalat), and influencers from the culinary, travel, lifestyle and fashion industries. The company has integrated with several important partners to add payment and logistics features to the Desty Store platform.

“In addition to online merchants, Desty also used by various users to increase engagement with their followers. We also provide our users with the best features, from customizable templates to comprehensive analysis tools.”

Bill said that his team will use this seed funding to accelerate product development and boost user acquisition. He targets Desty to be able to attract 100 thousand users by the first half of next year.

Bill Wang founded Desty with Eric Nathanael. Both have enough experience in local and global companies, from the e-commerce industry to B2B to telecommunications. Bill previously worked for 17 years at Alibaba, he was involved in the journey of the technology giant to evolve into AliExpress.

Social commerce momentum

According to the Econsultancy report with Magento and Hootsuite in October 2019 entitled “The State of Social Commerce in Southeast Asia”, the social commerce industry is projected to grow significantly. Southeast Asia has more than 350 million internet users and 90% of them are connected to smartphones, as a result this opportunity is very promising to work on.

The pie has grown significantly during the pandemic and has been previously covered by DailySocial.

In Indonesia, these players offer a variety of simple technology solutions that make it easier for sellers to enter the digital realm. These players are Woobiz, TapTalk.io, Storie, Super, Chilibeli, Halosis.

In fact, Moka released the GoStore which makes it easy for merchants to create online shop sites. Before investing in Desty, East Ventures also invested in a social commerce startup called KitaBeli last August.

Another player, Kata.ai, a conversational technology platform powered by AI and NLP, released a dedicated social commerce platform and manages a business called QIOS. Through this platform, MSME players can create virtual assistants via WhatsApp to serve inquiries, payments, and deliveries.

This platform is integrated with e-wallets (OVO, DANA, LinkAja), and logistics services (GoSend and GrabExpress). “Kata.ai is an enabler to help players in this industry be more thriving with intelligent technology,” Kata.ai’s CEO Irzan Raditya said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Kerja.io Connects Companies to Recruit Indonesian Students in the US for Internship

With the aim to bridge the needs of startups and companies in Indonesia to recruit/provide internship opportunities to Indonesian students studying in the United States, Timothy Sam Wijaya then founded Kerja.io.

The platform officially launched this November and already has around 800 students from more than 150 universities on the waiting list, spread across the United States. Kerja.io has also established strategic partnerships with 40 companies in Indonesia ranging from Ovo, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, to Payfazz.

Timothy revealed to DailySocial that he currently sees most opportunities for internships in companies are still limited to recommendations or a small scope between partners and insiders. There are still many students who find it difficult to get internship opportunities at well-known startups and companies in Indonesia. After doing some testing, Timothy then validated the hypothesis and started building Kerja.io.

“Of all the companies that have had conversations with us, most of them are very enthusiastic about the opportunities we provide to reach more Indonesian talents who study abroad. With our approach, we have a fairly good existence in the best universities with Indonesian communities. with our relationship with PERMIAS Nasional (the Indonesian Student Association in the United States), it allows us to expand our network and reach more than 8 thousand students,” Timothy said.

Within 24 hours of the platform being launched, many Indonesian students from the Ivy League such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT immediately registered to join the Kerja.io platform. About the business model and monetization strategy, Timothy emphasized that currently the platform can be accessed for free. Kerja.io has not yet launched a monetization strategy for both users and companies at this time.

Fulfilling the needs of digital talents

Kerja.io to connect students with companies open for internships

The increasing number of startups in Indonesia is not supported by the number of digital talents with the required skills and abilities. Seeing these opportunities, it is hoped that platforms such as Kerja.io can be an option for Indonesian companies to recruit fresh digital talents, graduates from well-known universities in the United States.

Timothy said, the current enthusiasm of students studying abroad for internships in Indonesia is also increasing, along with the growth of mature startups and the presence of technology companies in Indonesia.

“I see that now is a very good time. The pandemic has caused most students who are continuing their studies in the United States to rethink their plans, and we are seeing more students returning to their homeland after graduation. But not only because of the pandemic, most of them are they are very enthusiastic about the potential offered in this country, “said Timothy.

In particular, Kerja.io claims that most of the users on the platform are young talents who are quite tech-savvy who are then being targeted by many companies and startups in Indonesia.

There are still many targets that Kerja.io wants to achieve, besides focusing on growth, it also wants to add more companies from various industries. Kerja.io also wants to strengthen its position in the United States and strengthen the foundation to be able to expand into other markets.

What Kerja.io wants to highlight is that all people who are part of the team are undergraduate students aged 19-21 years with the exception of Alvin Salim who is a Magistrate student.

“We started our journey by helping companies recruit the best talent and helping students find the job opportunities of their dreams, and we will continue to help them. Kerja.io is a product of the goodwill of a group of students who want to help their peers,” Timothy said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Entering Its First Year, Blibli Mitra Focuses on Strengthening the Omnichannel Ecosystem

Blibli has the ambition to increase the number of grocery store owners to go digital by utilizing the Blibli Mitra application. It is targeted that partners can increase by two times higher from the current position of 16 thousand stores spread across Indonesia.

Since the launching last year, the concept of Blibli Mitra is not much different from similar services made by competitors, such as Mitra Bukalapak, Mitra Tokopedia, or Mitra Shopee. Blibli Mitra opens access to digital products, such as balance, data packages, game vouchers, electricity tokens, BPJS, and train tickets that partners can sell to their customers.

In addition, there is a wholesale feature that partners can use to replenish the merchandise stock of Blibli’s partner brand principal, one of which is Unilever. With competitive prices, allowing partners to get more benefits.

Blibli’s VP O2O, David Michum explained, Blibli Mitra is part of Blibli’s omnichannel, so that it is integrated with the e-commerce ecosystem that has been established by the company, be it payment systems, procurement & logistics, to online platforms. This strength is what distinguishes Blibli Mitra from other similar players.

In delivering wholesale products purchased by partners, Blibli Mitra utilizes the company’s warehouse and logistics fleet, Fulfillment by Blibli (FBB) which is supported by 20 warehouses and 32 hubs in 15 cities. As a result, partners can enjoy free shipping facilities.

In fact, he is preparing the Blibli B2C application, which is usually used by end consumers, to connect the products sold in it, including MSME products, to the Blibli Mitra application so that it can be sold to its customers. “Because this [Blibli Mitra] is part of the omnichannel,” he explained in a virtual press conference, Thursday (19/11).

The Blibli Mitra application is designed to be very light, only taking up a 1.6MB capacity. So that wherever the partners are located, even though the internet network is bad, they can still make transactions.

Blibli’s interest is in this segment because according to data from the Ministry of Cooperatives and UKM, it is stated that MSMEs have contributed more than 60% of the National GDP. The government is also targeting the modernization of 15 thousand traditional go digital stalls. Moreover, the pandemic has further boosted grocery store businesses as customers limit visits to shopping centers and choose to shop for daily necessities at stores near their homes.

David continued, this trend was also reflected in the performance of Blibli Mitra, where orders from partners grew by four times compared to before the pandemic. The most purchased digital products are pulses and electricity tokens. While wholesale products are ground coffee, instant noodles, and ready-to-drink milk.

In the past year, Blibli Mitra has had 16 thousand partners joining. All of these partners, if accumulated, serve 1 million consumers spread across 333 cities in Indonesia. He targets that by the end of this year, Blibli Mitra partners can increase to double the current number.

In order for the target to be realized, Blibli has a field team that is tasked with acquiring new partners and routinely providing assistance so that partners’ digital capabilities increase. The application is also equipped with business management features, including cash flow management, financial monitoring, loyalty gamification and brand promos.

“In the future, we want to increase the financial inclusion of micro entrepreneurs by establishing partnerships with financial institutions, in addition to developing payment options, including COD,” he concluded.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Observing the Potential of Co-Living Business in the Digital Era

The well-established ecosystem of boarding house [further mentioned by kost-kostan] sector or what is recently known as co-living, has become an opportunity for startups like RoomME. This platform, which specifically caters for homestay owners and seekers, tries to boost the company’s acceleration by providing further education and introduction to technology and the use of applications to make it easier for homestay owners and seekers.

In this #Selasastartup edition, DailySocial presents RoomME Co-Founder & COO Winoto Hartanto.

Kost-kostan business transformation

The concept of kost-kostan has always been very familiar to the people of Indonesia. By prioritizing a family culture and a close relationship between the owner and the seeker, makes this business never subside and they are always glimpsed by the house owners. Seeing this potential, RoomME founders tried to find opportunities that could then be explored to target this sector.

“For a long time, this business was known as kost-kostan. However, nowadays when many investors come and to simplify a more general term, co-living has been introduced, but it does not leave the essence of the business,” Winoto said.

Many insights were later found by Winoto along with other colleagues when he then started building RoomME. Starting from quite a lot of feedback from the boarding house owner to the ability of technology to make it easier for both parties. This then differentiates a platform like RoomME from other similar platforms.

“Since the beginning, we have focused on providing services to boarding owners as well as boarding house seekers, in contrast to other platforms, which are mostly marketplaces,” Winoto said.

Pandemic drives acceleration

About the pandemic hindered the growth of RoomME’s business, Winoto emphasized that at the beginning of the pandemic, it had experienced problems. However, the pandemic has also created creativity among the management and RoomME team to move faster.

Among those are accelerating the digital and educational process for owners and seekers. Education is a powerful way that is claimed to be able to accelerate awareness and digital adoption of RoomME’s target market.

“Using the application, we strive to provide information and convenience to boarding owners to manage their boarding business. Meanwhile, for boarding seekers, using the application gives them the flexibility to search for boarding houses anywhere and anytime,” Winoto said.

In particular, RoomME offers two service options to boarding owners, those who want to have the freedom to manage their boarding business and services that make it easier for homestay owners when they want to jump right into managing their business.

“To date, with the education we have launched, we have not encountered any obstacles. From various groups, young and old alike, have adopted RoomME technology very well,” Winoto added.

In the future, RoomME sees that the future of the co-living business in Indonesia is very bright, as seen from the stable interest of boarding house seekers and a large number of house owners in Greater Jakarta. Expansion to reach a wider market is also the next for RoomME’s plan.

“Last year we were present in Jabodetabek. Next year we plan to expand to Bandung and Yogyakarta. In the future RoomME wants to be a platform that unites industries that are still very fragmented,” Winoto said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Zenius to Launch Educational Management System for Teachers

Zenius announces the launch of Zenius untuk Guru (ZuG), a free learning management system created by teachers, for teachers. This platform can be used by teachers throughout Indonesia for free, for all subjects, and at all levels of education to facilitate the management of learning activities.

Zenius’s Chief of Teachers’ Initiative, Amanda P. Witdarmono explained that the development of ZuG started with the company’s mission to improve Indonesia’s educational competence to the global level. Through their ongoing relationships with teachers, they often face challenges, especially during the pandemic.

Examples include finding interesting study materials, creating test questions that match students’ cognitive levels and understanding, and assessing student work results. Then, the teacher must also design teaching and learning activities that are fun, motivating, and easy to accept even though they do not interact directly with students.

“ZuG Harir is a co-creation platform to help teachers teach, specifically in distributing a subject matter, sorting and assigning questions, and obtaining an analysis of student work results,” Amanda said in an official statement, Thursday (26/11).

Prior to its official release, ZuG has been accessed by more than 6 thousand teachers in Indonesia to get input and further refine the platform.

ZuG reduces the workload of teachers in creating course materials and exam questions by providing access to the Zenius material bank, enabling teachers to create online classes, manage student homework deadlines, automatic assessments, and share concept videos from Zenius as additional material.

According to him, with this learning management system, teachers can have more time to do what they are good at, increase quality learning interactions, so that students have high literacy and numeracy skills. ZuG itself can be accessed via the official website.

In the previous explanation, the Co-Founder & Chief Education Officer of Sabda PS. said the company will continue to maintain free access forever, including 80 thousand concept video content, practice questions, and answers, in order to target 30 million students to use Zenius.

Meanwhile, the company is said to have 15.7 million users spread across 300 cities and districts.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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JD.id to Focus on Supply Chain, Warehouse Extension, and Logistics

Logistics services are now a crucial sector. One of the driving factors for the sector during the pandemic is the increase in online shopping activities. Integrated and comprehensive services are increasingly prioritized by e-commerce platforms in Indonesia, starting from collaborating with experienced logistics partners to carrying out logistics activities on their own.

DailySocial tries to dig deeper into JD.id’s business focus until next year and their efforts to emerge as the leading platform in the fast delivery sector throughout Indonesia.

Commitment for fast delivery

JD.id’s President and CEO, Zhang Li said, “In accordance with the company’s vision and mission, JD.id will continue to build the company’s capabilities to serve consumers with the best shopping experience, by continuing to strengthen three main elements, namely strategic development in the supply chain, increasing numbers. warehouse and expand logistics coverage, as well as developing online-to-offline (O2O) retail technology. ”

JD.id’s Chief Marketing, Mia Fawzia explained, during the last 6 months, the company has experienced positive business growth. Not only in the number of visitors but the growth in the number of sales reached up to 40%. Popular types of products are products in the Electronics, Groceries, Mom & Baby, and Home Living & Virtual categories.

Regarding logistics services, the company noted that in September 2020 85% of order package shipments to all parts of Indonesia were successfully carried out within 24 hours. The data also shows that 95% of the delivery of ordered packages to the Jabodetabek area was successfully carried out within 24 hours. For logistics fleets, sellers are free to choose J-Express (JD.id’s internal logistics service) or use other services.

“Until now, JD.id has been able to reach almost all parts of Indonesia. However, especially for the Papua region, we are still working with third-party logistics to help us in the process of delivering goods,” said Mia.

Overall JD.id has around 12 warehouses spread across several regions in Indonesia. The warehouse locations are scattered in several regions. Starting from Jakarta (Marunda) 6 warehouses, Cikarang (rented by IKEA) 1 warehouse, Medan 1 warehouse, Semarang 1 warehouse, Makassar 1 warehouse, Pontianak 1 warehouse, and Sidoarjo 1 warehouse.

Warehouse ownership is one of the keys to speeding up the logistics process. By being managed independently, the e-commerce platform can carry out the sorting and shipping process quickly, without obstacles to inventory data access and the retrieval process from third-party logistics partners.

Service expansion

Teknologi QR Code di JD X-Mart Indonesia — QR Code technology in JD X-Mart Indonesia

As an e-commerce platform, JD.id has expanded its services to various products. The company also has several insurance or protection products.

“We intend to provide a complete and comprehensive shopping experience and services to JD.id customers, [..] to help reduce the risk of consumers in shopping if something unwanted happens,” Mia said.

In the future, JD.id is interested in exploring this service further, one of which is by collaborating with various national and multinational protection companies.

To increase product choices, JD.id presents JD Life on-demand services. In total, there are 12 service categories to help with daily life, from installation, maintenance, to cleaning services. Most of the services offered by JD Life focus on household needs, including installation and cleaning of electronic devices, washing machines, to air conditioning for housing and apartments.

“The range of JD Life services depends on each category, but currently almost all major cities in Indonesia can order and enjoy JD Life services,” JD Life’s Head Operations Ryan Sebastian said.

Regarding the development of JD.id X-Mart, Mia revealed, similar to other retail businesses, JD felt the impact of the Covid -19 pandemic. Even so, this offline retail facility is managed by an omnichannel, so the impact is not felt.

Introduced in 2018, JD.ID X-Mart is the first cashier-less shop in Indonesia (outside of its home country, China), located on PIK Avenue. Because it carries the concept of a store without a cashier, JD.ID X-Mart uses the QR code in the mobile application on the smartphone to the verification tool at the store entrance gate.

“The JD X-Mart module business itself is indeed an omni channel, making it very easy for us to switch and focus on online sales,” said Mia.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Titik Pintar Introduces SahabatPintar, Educational Content Platform for Elementary Students

Titik Pintar’s interactive edutainment platform officially introduces SahabatPintar.id, an educational content platform designed for the primary school (SD) student segment in Indonesia.

SahabatPintar.id presents material monitored by elementary school teachers in Indonesia who have teaching experience for more than 10 years. Currently, the SahabatPintar.id platform is available for free access.

Titik Pintar’s founder & CEO, Robbert Deusing, said that his party wants to contribute to the quality of education in Indonesia. This is in line with World Bank recommendations regarding the impact of Covid-19, the education sector needs to pay attention to the quality of distance learning methods.

Based on data from the Ministry of Education and Culture, there are currently 25 million children currently studying at the elementary level. Meanwhile, the number of schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic has reached 530 thousand units.

“SahabatPintar wants to play a role in the world of education in the long term. When schools reopen, we believe teachers will be greatly helped by the availability of quality educational materials that are easily accessible such as those available by SahabatPintar.id and the Titik Pintar application,” Deusing said to DailySocial.

He revealed that his team is currently integrating 100 materials into the SahabatPintar platform. The long-term goal of this platform is to bring together teachers, designers, and animators in Indonesia to create up to 10,000 quality content. The contents will be integrated directly on the Titik Pintar platform.

“Even though our team has made various educational content, it will still be difficult to catch up with the rapid development of children. At the same time, we are aware that there are many teachers and content creators in Indonesia who have the expertise to create educational content,” he told DailySocial.

Therefore, to achieve this target, his party is holding a competition for designer teachers and animators to produce educational content that is easily understood by children.

For your information, Titik Pintar is currently used by 12 thousand users in Indonesia. This platform provides various edutainment materials tailored to the government curriculum (Kurtilas).

Expecting breakthrough from edtech players in 2021

Not many edtech services have run in the gamification sector, like Titik Pintar. In fact, this content can actually be an interesting approach to provide a fun atmosphere for teaching and learning activities, especially during the pandemic.

With the plan of Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud) Nadiem Makarim to reopen schools in January 2021, this could be the right step to provide a temporary “break” for parents who have been accompanying their children to study during the pandemic.

This has also been acknowledged by a number of players we have interviewed. There are many issues experienced, one of which is that parents are overwhelmed with their children because they are not used to transitioning to online platforms.

The trend of edtech services began to skyrocket in the last few years. The peak occurred this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The policy of teaching and learning activities from home (KBM) is a tremendous momentum for online learning platform providers to gain new users and significant traffic.

In general, the government’s decision to reopen schools will present a further “test case” to prove whether edtech services remain relevant and credible in the next year. This is primarily to provide affordable internet access and content for user segments outside Java who are in rural and border areas.

In addition, next year can also be momentum for old and new edtech players to develop content with more varied types and costs. Moreover, there are currently not many edtech services that play in the realm of gamification, especially for elementary school children.

To date, edtech startups have various market segments ranging from elementary to high school lectures, or employee segments by offering free access for certain periods to premium access to interactive content, video-on-demand, and private tutors.

DSResearch through the Edtech Report 2020 reveals that internet connection is still the biggest challenge (81.2%) of users in learning, followed by access to paid content (49.4%), understanding of English (39.2%), and availability of devices (38,4%).

In addition, as many as 70 percent of respondents are willing to pay for edtech services ranging from IDR 50,000 / month (12.6%), IDR 50,000-1 million / month (35.3%), IDR 1 million-2.5 million / month (24, 6%), IDR 2.5 million-5 million / month (17.8%), and above IDR 5 million / month (9.7%).

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian