E-commerce in Indonesia is really hot, we’ve been talking about it for a long, long time, waiting for it to grow. Nobody could argue that the industry is still in its infancy, and looking for that room to grow into a full scale industry with significant impact to our economy.

Another thing nobody could argue is the government involvement in nurturing the ecosystem surrounding the e-commerce. The banking system, logistics, consumer protection, merchant protection, etc. Apparently it’s been incredibly hard to deal with when each e-commerce company goes up against the government. So, rather than fighting alone, better fight in groups. I’m trying my best to not make this a satire post, btw.

idEA is founded by plasa, dealgoing, berniaga, multiply, blibli, bhinneka, tokobagus, tokopedia, gramedia online and kaskus. The association is led by Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwidjaja as Chief of Advisory Board and Multiply Indonesia CEO Daniel Tumiwa as Chief of Executive Committee.

The basic idea of idEA is to represent the e-commerce companies in Indonesia and deal with the government regarding regulations and policy. They will also focus on issues like e-commerce education, industry regulations, intellectual property, payment, cyber crime, logistics and consumer protection. idEA will engage with government and non-government relevant bodies such as Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Communications and Informatics, Ministry of Treasury, Consumer Protection Foundation, etc.

I see idEA like The Avengers, a group of super companies using their influentiality and high profile connection to grow the industry and fight evil. Of course these companies have their own agenda, but they have a same mission to grow the industry.

I expect a lot from idEA in the near future, hopefully their existence can really give significant contributions to grow the e-commerce industry in Indonesia.