Mobile Carriers Could Have Anticipated The Rise of OTT Services

Back in February the Indonesian telecommunications regulatory body (BRTI) announced plans to build and deploy its own messaging app platform to replace the aging SMS. The move was clearly an attempt to counter the onslaught of applications that substitute the core mobile communications services offered by mobile network companies. Indonesian telcos, Telkomsel and Indosat, have separately announced their plans to develop such an app.

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Sleeping With The Enemy: Telco vs OTT

Earlier today, I attended a discussion event held by our friends at IndoTelko. I find the event super interesting because they’re covering one of the biggest question in the telecommunication industry “OTT, Friends or Foe?”. The event itself was attended by all the top people from the telco companies, CEOs from XL Axiata, Indosat, Smartfren, Telkomsel, Axis and also telecommunications regulatory body, BRTI as well as Andy Zain to represent the OTT side. Continue reading Sleeping With The Enemy: Telco vs OTT

Rencana Telko Lokal Untuk Meninggalkan BlackBerry Ternyata Masuk Akal

RIM dulu adalah perusahaan hebat dengan bisnis yang bagus. Saya kira ini yang terjadi ketika Anda tidak bisa mengejar para kompetitor dan berhenti berinovasi secara teratur. Melihat tren yang ada, akan ada kemungkinkan bahwa ‘mitra’ RIM sendiri yang akan melepaskan ikatan dengan mereka. Terdengar tidak masuk akal? Mungkin tidak.

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The Idea of Telco Companies Wanting to Kill BlackBerry is Not so Crazy After All

Oh RIM, once a great company with a great business. I guess this is what happens when you can’t keep up with competitors and stopped innovating on a regular basis. Looking at the trend, there’s a big chance that RIM’s own “partners” are trying to move away from them. Sounds crazy? Maybe not. Continue reading The Idea of Telco Companies Wanting to Kill BlackBerry is Not so Crazy After All

Android Price Lowers; Partnership between Google Play and Carrier is More Crucial Than Ever

Gideon Edie Purnomo, Head of VAS, Applications and Device Management Group Telkomsel, says that the Android paid app download ratio through Telkomsel is only around 5%. Of 100 apps downloaded, only 5 are paid apps. Though so few, the number is a progress.

Meanwhile, the number of Android device is increasing rapidly during the last year. Today, the number of Android user Telkomsel customer reaches 2.5 million devices. This number is 15 times the number of last year which only 170 thousands devices. By the end of this year, Telkomsel targets that this number will continue to increase to 5 million devices.

Other than there are many producers which brought Android in to their cell phones, Gideon thinks that the rapid growth of Android user is also caused by the price of Android device that has become more affordable. Once, it was IDR6 million, now an Android smartphone is available for purchase for only IDR2 million.

Continue reading Android Price Lowers; Partnership between Google Play and Carrier is More Crucial Than Ever

Rumor: Apple Akan Implementasikan Sistem Potong Pulsa Untuk App Store, Dimulai dengan Indosat

Berdasarkan informasi dari beberapa sumber, Apple dikabarkan akan menyediakan fasilitas potong pulsa untuk iOS App Strore dalam beberapa bulan ke depan sebagai cara tambahan bagi konsumen untuk membeli aplikasi.

Tidak seperti di beberapa negara. iTunes Gift Card tidak tersedia di hampir seluruh negara di Asia dan PayPal tidak bisa digunakan untuk App Store lokal. Saat ini satu-satunya cara bagi konsumen Indonesia untuk membeli aplikasi dari App Store adalah dengan menggunakan kartu kredit, tetapi mayoritas penduduk Indonesia tidak menggunakannya dan jumlah kartu kredit yang digunakan hanya sekitar 15 juta dengan rata-rata satu orang memiliki dua kartu. Sementara kurang lebih 80 persen pelanggan mobile Indonesia menggunakan layanan prabayar dan tentunya sebagian besar dari mereka tidak memiliki kartu kredit sehingga kurangnya variasi metode pembayaran di App Store menjadi hambatan bagi potensi pertumbuhan di platform tersebut.

Continue reading Rumor: Apple Akan Implementasikan Sistem Potong Pulsa Untuk App Store, Dimulai dengan Indosat

Rumor: Apple to Implement Carrier Billing for App Store Starting With Indosat

Apple is said to be debuting carrier billing for the iOS App Store in the coming months as an additional way for consumers to purchase apps according to a number of different sources. The scheme supposedly will be rolled out initially through Indosat, Apple’s third carrier partner in Indonesia, which launched the iPhone 4S on its network on Monday.

Unlike in several other countries, iTunes Gift Cards are not available in most Asian countries and PayPal is not accepted by the local App Stores. At the moment the only way for Indonesians to buy apps from the App Store is by using credit cards but the majority of the population do not use banks and the number of credit cards in use is only around 15 million with an average of two cards per person. Since around 80 percent of Indonesia’s mobile subscribers are on prepaid and most do not have credit cards, Apple’s single payment option limits the potential growth of the platform.

Indonesia is home to fewer than a million iOS devices among 15 million smartphones and the country is more known as a BlackBerry country as far as smartphones go. In fact, RIM is working hard to make sure that its devices remain among the top smartphone of choice among Indonesian consumers. The country also has the largest RIM developer community in the world with 488 members in the BlackBerry DevID community, and thousands more unaffiliated according to RIM VP Developer Relations Alec Saunders on Monday at a Mobile Monday event in Jakarta.

Continue reading Rumor: Apple to Implement Carrier Billing for App Store Starting With Indosat

Bagaimana Caranya Startup Indonesia Mendapatkan Satu Juta Pengguna

Ada hal yang cukup mengganggu saya dalam 4 tahun belakangan, jumlah startup Indonesia bertumbuh sangat pesat dan memproduksi ratusan perusahaan berbasis konsumen setiap tahun, tetapi hampir tidak ada dari mereka ini yang mencapai satu juta pengguna. Paling banter mencapai ratusan ribu pengguna, namun tetap tidak sampai satu juta. Mengapa hal ini terjadi? Apakah belum ada yang bisa memecahkan kode untuk mencapainya?

Kebanyakan startup yang saya temui selalu berfikir bahwa mereka harus fokus pada pemecahan masalah, membangun produk yang hebat dan mendapatkan uang dari produk tersebut. Apa yang tidak dipikirkan oleh banyak orang adalah fakta bahwa mereka membutuhkan pengguna dari produk yang mereka hasilkan. Bagaimana mengajak orang untuk mendaftarkan diri mereka ke situs Anda dan menjadi anggota layanan Anda dan mendapatkan banyak keuntungan darinya. Persoalannya, tidak cukup banyak platform lokal yang bisa membantu anda mencapai satu juta pengguna.

Mari kita telusuri.

Continue reading Bagaimana Caranya Startup Indonesia Mendapatkan Satu Juta Pengguna

How to get Indonesian startups into the “Millions of Users” club

It bothers me that for the past 4 years or so, the number of Indonesian startups grows really fast producing hundreds of new consumer companies each year, but almost none of them reaches “the million-users” club. As big as the traction gets, it’s a couple hundreds of thousands users not not even in the millions. Why is this happening? Has no one crack the code?

Most startups I talked to always think that they have to focus on addressing real problems, building great products and make money out of it. What most people might have left out, is the fact that they need a user base for their products. How to get people to register to your site and become a member with full benefits. The problem is there’s not enough platform to grow into millions of users in Indonesia.

Let’s drill down.

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[Music Monday] Sebenarnya, Startup Musik Sudah Lama Ada di Indonesia (Part 1)

Sebenarnya apakah definisi startup itu? Dan dalam konteks DailySocial, apakah startup teknologi itu? Berdasarkan Wikipedia, sebuah startup adalah, “Perusahaan atau organisasi sementara yang dirancang untuk mencari model bisnis yang dapat berkembang atau diulang”. Artikel di Wikipedia tersebut menjelaskan lebih lanjut bahwa, “Perusahaan startup memiliki berbagai macam bentuk namun istilah perusahan startup sering diasosiasikan dengan perusahaan dengan perkembangan pesat yang berorientasi teknologi. Investor umumnya lebih sering tertarik pada perusahaan baru yang dikenal oleh profil risiko/ganjaran dan skalabilitas”.

Anda bisa membaca penjelasan lengkap pada tautan di atas, namun saya pikir saya telah menuliskan kata kunci dari definisinya, dan saya pikir sebagian besar dari Anda juga akan menambahkan keterangan ‘beroperasi tidak lebih dari 3 tahun’ dari kriteria tersebut.

Continue reading [Music Monday] Sebenarnya, Startup Musik Sudah Lama Ada di Indonesia (Part 1)