TechCrunch Disrupt SF’s alumnus MailTime Technology Inc., that introduces MailTime, voices its ambition to expand to Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. MailTime is an e-mail client app which supports text messaging-based user experience. One of their attempts is by installing local language to the app.
MailTime’s Co-Founder and CEO Heatherm Huang stated that the expansion, especially to Indonesia, is closely related to the vast potential of mobile internet exists in the country. Huang stated:
“We can see that the mobile internet industry in Indonesia keeps growing, indicating that the potential keeps growing as well. The policy makers and local enterprises are embracing a better and more open internet ecosystem. We believe that this is the best time for a mobile app-based startup to do business in the country. The market is still fresh, huge, and completely different in the near future.”
MailTime realizes that in spite the current market is dominated by Android users, MailTime is only available on iOS platform in the meantime. To manage this situation, the team are currently developing an Android-based MailTime app, which has entered its public beta testing and will officially be unveiled within the next two months.
Reason behind the optimism
Indonesians are highly enthusiast with various social media platforms. A data by APJII shows that social media access covers 87.4 percent of people’s digital activities. This figure adds more confidence to MailTime’s expansion to Indonesia.
MailTime is based on social media. It supports an IM-like solution which currently blooms in Indonesia. Huang commented on this matter:
“You probably think that there is no space left in the IM competition in Indonesia as LINE, WhatsApp, and WeChat have already taken the spot. However, we don’t perceive them as our direct competitors, since MailTime is specially built for e-mail communication.”
Huang heavily concerns about the app’s compatibility. A LINE user must make sure that his chatting partner installs LINE as well before start communicating, he said. He called it as a closed social media concept issue. However, MailTime’s concept is quite different. MailTime users may communicate with anyone, regardless on what e-mail client he uses, since the app is basically based on e-mail communication.
Targeting Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam
MailTime targets not only Indonesia, but also Malaysia and Vietnam. Those three countries are MailTime’s main focus in Southeast Asia. In the last update, MailTime will even include Malay and Vietnamese as one of languages it supports. The company commits to localize its services so that it may scale to the next level.