Monthly Archives: November 2020

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

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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
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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Pluang Survey: Gold as the Favorite Investment Instrument During Pandemic

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Pluang has just conducted a survey involving 5500 respondents from a number of major cities in Indonesia. Focusing on investing and saving behavior for the millennials. One of the findings, gold is the main choice (32%) for this age group during this pandemic for investment.

Pluang’s VP Business Development, Humprey explained, there are some factors that cause gold to be the top choice for millennials. One of them is affordability with promising reciprocity.

“As many as 32% of the millennial generation reportedly tried new investments, namely gold. This is the highest percentage compared to other well-known investments such as mutual funds, stocks, and deposits,” Humprey said in his presentation.

Humprey’s presentation shows that the new investment in gold chosen by their respondents far outperformed other forms of investment such as stocks (15%), mutual funds (16%), deposits (8%), to p2p lending (4%). Another factor that helped catapult the popularity of gold in the Kiwari group was the price of gold which had risen significantly in the April-July 2020 period.

This survey actually captures that the budget for investment tends to decrease. Millennials are known to save more during this pandemic. Millennial saving enthusiasm is known to increase by around 5-10%. However, the pandemic factor has also caused the millennial generation’s budget allocations to change a lot. The costs of transportation and travel are two budget items that have diminished considerably since the pandemic began.

The unprecedented situation due to the Covid-19 outbreak is enough reason for millennials to allocate more money to save. The need for pension funds, emergency funds, family savings, buying property, medical expenses, and education funds are respondents’ top priorities when saving.

Nevertheless, the survey overall found that millennials still prefer to save their money in the form of investment (59%) rather than saving (41%). Meanwhile, the most attractive investment, as mentioned earlier, is gold.

“There are 54% of millennials having new investment during the pandemic and gold is the main choice,” said Humprey.

As a digital investment platform, he believes gold offers great opportunities for companies during a pandemic. Gold is indeed one of the investment products offered by Pluang along with other products. The Pluang movement to take advantage of this opportunity has actually been seen since actively engaging other platforms to offer gold investment products.

Gojek and Dana are two of the names they have partnered with over the past few months. Humprey also admits that this is reflected in their current user profile and activity. “So the big picture of investment is very attractive, especially in gold, especially during this pandemic,” he added.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Tencent Siapkan US$14 Juta untuk Total Hadiah Esports PUBG Mobile, Audiens Free Fire di Brasil Tumbuh Pesat

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Minggu lalu, ada beberapa berita menarik seputar industri esports. Tencent mengumumkan bahwa mereka akan menyiapkan US$14 juta sebagai total hadiah dari semua turnamen PUBG Mobile pada 2021. Selain itu, TSM juga merekrut pemain League of Legends asal Taiwan, SwordArt, dengan nilai kontrak US$6 juta.

Tencent Siapkan US$14 Juta untuk Total Hadiah Turnamen PUBG Mobile

Dalam PUBG Mobile Global Championship Season Zero (PMGC 2020), Tencent mengungkapkan sejumlah hal, termasuk beberapa pencapaian PUBG Mobile sepanjang 2020. Director of PUBG Mobile Global Esports, James Yang mengatakan, PUBG Mobile World League Season Zero (PMWL) berhasil mendapatkan concurrent viewers sebanyak 1,1 juta orang. Selain itu, jumlah tim yang mendaftar di PUBG Mobile Professional League (PMPL) dan PUBG Mobile Club Open (PMCO) mencapai 120 ribu tim.

Pada tahun ini, Tencent menyiapkan US$5 juta sebagai total hadiah dari semua turnamen esports PUBG Mobile. Tahun depan, konglomerasi Tiongkok itu menaikkan total hadiah yang mereka siapkan menjadi US14 juta. Selain itu, menurut laporan Egg Network, turnamen esports PUBG Mobile juga akan diselenggarakan di lebih banyak kawasan, termasuk Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Turki, Eropa barat, Amerika Utara, Amerika Latin, Brasil, dan Arabia.

Jadwal turnamen esports PUBG Mobile pada tahun 2021.
Jadwal turnamen esports PUBG Mobile pada tahun 2021.

Salah satu perubahan yang akan Tencent tetapkan pada skena esports PUBG Mobile tahun depan adalah mereka akan mengadakan kompetisi invitational setelah Spring Split dari PMPL dan PMCO. Hal ini berarti, turnamen PUBG Mobile akan selalu bisa ditonton sepanjang tahun. Kabar baiknya, fans PUBG Mobile tidak akan kehabisan pertandingan untuk ditonton. Hanya saja, tim profesional harus mempersiapkan diri untuk menghadapi jadwal yang ketat. Perubahan lainnya adalah, PMGC hanya akan diadakan pada akhir tahun.

SwordArt Tanda Tangani Kontrak dengan TSM, Senilai US$6 Juta

Team SoloMid menandatangani kontrak dengan pemain asal Taiwan, Hu Shuo-Chieh, yang lebih dikenal dengan nama “SwordArt”. Dengan kontrak bernilai US$6 juta ini, SwordArt akan bermain untuk TSM selama 2 tahum, yaitu pada 2021 dan 2022. Dengan ini, Sword Art jgua menjadi pemain League of Legends dengan gaji terbesar di kawasan Amerika Utara.

SwordArt memegang peran Support. Dia menarik perhatian pendiri TSM, Andy Dinh, setelah membantu timnya, Suning, maju ke babak final dari League of Legends World Championship. Dinh merasa, sekarang adalah waktu yang tepat bagi TSM untuk mencari pemain berbakat baru, terutama setelah dua pemain bintang mereka — Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg dan Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng — memutuskan untuk mengundurkan diri. Bjergsen akan tetap bergabung dengan TSM sebagai pelatih, sementara Doublelift memutuskan untuk mengundurkan diri.

Dinh merasa, US$6 juta yang TSM keluarkan untuk mendapatkan SwordArt bukanlah harga mahal yang harus mereka bayar. Dia percaya, dengan keberadaan SwordArt, tim League of Legends akan banyak memenangkan turnamen di masa depan, sehingga mereka akan mendapatkan banyak fans. “Masuk akal bagi TSM untuk merekrut pemain baru,” kata Dinh, seperti dikutip dari The Washington Post.

Audiens Liga Free Fire Brasil Naik Dua Kali Lipat

Jumlah penonton Liga Free Fire Brasil (LBFF) pada 2020 naik 107% jika dibandingkan dengan tahun lalu. Secara total, pertandingan-pertandingan dalam LBFF mendapatkan lebih dari 60 juta views di YouTube, channel TV kabel SporTV, dan platform streaming Garena, BOOYAH! Sementara itu, jumlah concurrent viewers di pertandingan LBFF mencapai 349 ribu orang. Sebagai perbandingan, jumlah concurrent viewers pada 2019 hanya mencapai 169 ribu orang.

Selain di Indonesia, Free Fire juga sangat populer di Brasil. Salah satu alasannya adalah karena game battle royale buatan Garena itu tidak membutuhkan smartphone berspesifikasi tinggi. Memang, sejak awal, Garena menargetkan pasar negara berkembang dengan Free Fire.

Di Brasil, organisasi esports lokal, LOUD, fokus pada skena esports Free Fire. Dan mereka berhasil menjadi tim esports pertama yang mendapatkan 1 miliar views di YouTube, lapor The Esports Observer. Sementara streamer dan pemain profesional Brasil, Bruno “Nobru” Goes berhasil menjadi streamer terpopuler di dunia pada Agustus 2020. Melihat tren ini, Twitch lalu menandatangani kontrak eksklusif dengan LOUD dan Goes.

ePremier League Season 3 Digelar Pada Januari 2021

Premier League dan Electronic arts mengumumkan bahwa mereka akan mengadakan ePremier League musim ketiga di Januari 2021. Pendaftaran untuk EA Sports FIFA 21 Global Series akan dibuka pada 3 Desember 2020. Sementara babak kualifikasi akan mulai diadakan pada Januari 2021. Penyelenggara turnamen asal Inggris, Gfinity, dipercaya untuk mengadakan kompetisi ePremier League, menurut laporan The Esports Observer.

ePremier League musim ketiga akan kembali diadakan pada awal 2021.
ePremier League musim ketiga akan kembali diadakan pada awal 2021.

Perwakilan dari 20 klub sepak bola akan bertanding untuk memperebutkan tempat di babak playoff, yang akan diadakan secara online. Sementara babak final akan diselenggarakan pada Maret atau April 2021. Babak final itu akan disiarkan secara live di Sky Sports, channel Premier League, dan channel Twitch EA SPORTS FIFA.

Kompetisi ini terbuka untuk warga Inggris yang berumur setidaknya 16 tahun. Total hadiah yang ditawarkan dalam ePremier League musim ketiga ini mencapai GBP40 ribu. Para peserta akan bertanding menggunakan PlayStation 4 dan Xbox One. Peserta yang menang akan mendapatkan trofi dan dapat masuk dalam EA SPORTS FIFA 21 Global Series (FGS) European Playoff.

Klub Sepak Bola Prancis, Olympique de Marseille Terjun ke Esports

Klub sepak bola Prancis, Olympique de Marseille terjun ke dunia esports dengan berkolaborasi bersama Grizi Esports. Organisasi esports asal Prancis itu didirikan oleh pesepak bola Antoine Griezmann dan saudaranya, Théo Griezmann.

Untuk musim pertandingan 2020/2021 dari FIFA Global Series, akan ada dua pemain profesional yang akan mewakili Marseille. Selain kompetisi internasional, Marseille juga akan ikut serta dalam liga esports lokal, eLigue1, yang diselenggarakan oleh EA Sports bersama Liga Sepak Bola Prancis. Melalui kerja sama dengan Grizi Esports, Marseille berharap bisa mengadakan acara jumpa fans secara offline atau kegiatan online.

“Kami bangga dengan keputusan kami untuk masuk ke dunia esports melalui kerja sama dengan Grizi Esports,” kata Chief Marketing & Media, Olympique de Marseille, Hervé Philippe, seperti dikutip dari Esports Insider. “Hal ini akan memberikan kesempatan pada kami untuk memahami esports dengan lebih baik dan mendekatkan diri dengan para penonton yang masih muda.”

BRI Ventures Scores 150 Billion Rupiah in the First Close of Sembrani Nusantara

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BRI Ventures today (25/11) announced the first closing of the Sembrani Nusantara Venture Fund. The value that was successfully booked reached 150 billion Rupiah; reached half of the total funds targeted at its launch in June 2020. Apart from BRI as a general partner, several investors are involved in this funding including Celebes Capital, Grab Holding, Fazz Financial Group, Investree, and Pandu Sjahrir.

He said his investment thesis is “beyond fintech”, which is targeting business areas outside the financial technology sector – adjusting the pillars of the “EARTH” sector (education, agro-maritime, retail, transportation/logistics, health). Sembrani will also focus on empowering SMEs; which will have an impact on strengthening BRI as the largest microfinance institution in the world.

To date, there have been two startups that have listed on Sembrani’s portfolio, but it’s still undisclosed.

“We are very pleased with the positive response generated from the investors of the Sembrani Nusantara Venture Fund in this first funding period. All of these investors are those who have experience investing in start-up companies and those who believe in the digital ecosystem in Indonesia. They believe in our goal to build sustainable future and startup companies,” BRI Ventures’s CEO Nicko Widjaja said.

The Sembrani Nusantara Venture Fund is also registered and supervised by the OJK. A venture fund is an investment contract scheme between the PMV (Venture Capital Company) itself and a custodian bank, which was created by OJK so that the venture capital company industry will be more willing to invest in shares. So far, the majority of local PMVs have played in profit-sharing financing, which is not much different from what financing companies do.

Nicko said in an interview that the launch of Sembrani was aimed at building an ecosystem that had been dominated by foreign PMVs. In the past, he thought the local PMV was not ready, but now is the right moment to show off on the national and regional levels.

It is undeniable that so far venture capital has tended to choose to take shelter under the regulations of neighboring countries. The issue of high taxation in Indonesia is the main reason. Capital gain tax application for PMV reaches 25% of the increase in equity value, while for individual investors it is 30%. Meanwhile, the capital gains tax in Singapore is only 5%.

The majority of local PMVs that fund digital startups and are registered with the OJK are part of the bank’s subsidiaries, including Central Capital Ventura (CVC chose BCA), BRI Ventures, Mandiri Capital Indonesia, and OCBC NISP Ventura.

Sustainable startups through IPO

Sembrani is a term used by BRI Ventures to describe sustainable local startups post the unicorn era. Sembrani is also known as Batara Wisnu’s riding horse in the puppet stories – it is said to represent the unicorn with local wisdom.

One of the steps to realizing this vision is to ensure that all aspects of the investment cycle runs well, through an initial public offering (IPO) as a first step towards becoming more sustainable. This was carried out by signing an MoU between BRI Ventures and the Indonesia Stock Exchange on November 11, 2020, with the intention of helping more startups to IPO on local exchanges.

BRI Ventures hopes that through Sembrani, stakeholders will open discussions to explore new business models so that in the future investors can participate in building venture funds in Indonesia. The structure of Sembrani is a Joint Investment Contract (KIB) which is similar to a Collective Investment Contract (KIK) in mutual funds which are generally known and supervised by OJK.

“Given our goal of supporting the local digital ecosystem and building IPO-worthy startups, we realize that the Sembrani Nusantara Fund can play a more active role in the local funding landscape in the future and build a venture capital industry that is competitive with Singapore,” said Nicko.

The investor composition, most of whom come from Indonesia, is interpreted as a big step to bring the local startup ecosystem to be more competitive in the global arena. Nicko explained that each investor will have a big contribution to the realization of this vision.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Warung Pintar Introduces Application for Wholesalers, Entering the Supply Chain Business

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The new retail startup Warung Pintar recently launched its latest innovation. Named “Grosir Pintar”, the application seeks to provide wholesale entrepreneurs access to inventory management and reach a wider market.

Simply put, wholesale owners can immediately offer their merchandise to shop owners which registered with the Warung Pintar application. This new feature is also equipped with logistics services to support the delivery of goods.

“Warung Pintar directly cooperates with wholesale entrepreneurs who stand alone in each region. We do this to maintain the quality of goods and services to keep them optimal and encourage empowerment in the entire shop ecosystem,” Warung Pintar’s Co-Founder & COO Harya Putra said.

He further explained that shop owners have access to a wider variety of goods, including local specialty products, at competitive prices; and can receive orders within hours through the same-day delivery service.

“Delivery of goods, both for wholesalers and shop owners, is performed by the logistics system owned by Warung Pintar. Embracing local residents to join as couriers, is one of our efforts to revive the economy in the region as a whole by providing equal benefits,” Harya added.

The business model applied by Grosir Pintar is commission based. Although he did not explain the details, Harya explained that the calculations were in accordance with the agreement with the wholesalers and adjusted to the established standards.

“Starting from direct findings from wholesalers in the field, in the midst of this pandemic, there are physical limitations that lead to difficulties in reaching shop customers, the fulfillment of goods, and increased logistics costs. That’s why we embraced more than 60 of the best wholesalers in 14 cities,” Harya said.

Starting in Surabaya, until now, Grosir Pintar can be accessed in Jakarta, Bandung, Depok, Kediri, Mojokerto, Jember, and several other cities in Java.

Warung supply chain

Digital players are increasingly working on the supply chain business for warungs. With a unique approach, currently, there are several startups playing in this area. First, with the capital financing approach (invoice financing), startups like AwanTunai make it easier for shop owners to fill their merchandise shelves through productive credit. Connecting micro and small entrepreneurs with distribution partners who provide a variety of needs – including wholesalers.

Through the GoToko application, Decacorn Gojek also tries to offer the same service for stall or grocery store owners to fulfill sales goods and products. They also take advantage of various services in their ecosystem, such as logistics with GoSend, payments via GoPay, and business management through GoBiz.

It’s not the last, Chilibeli, previously known as social commerce, is targeting the C2C segment, in the middle of last year, introduced Chilimart. With a B2B concept, they target micro-entrepreneurs as their target market. In addition, previously there was also the Ula application, which was designed as a marketplace for the fulfillment of merchandise in a warung. Ula is also integrated with AwanTunai’s financing services.

Based on BPS data, 63 million micro-entrepreneurs are mostly engaged in retail or trade. The potential for a large economic unit gives digital players a special spirit to work on this market.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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