Bluebird bets on quality beating out VC burn rates

Inside the lobby of Bluebird Group’s South Jakarta headquarters are two taxis: One is a gleaming Tesla; the other, a Holden Torana from the 1970s.

It’s a striking embodiment of the company’s past and future that Adrianto “Andre” Djokosoetono must balance each day.

Of his 22 years working for the Indonesian taxi giant, the last two have been spent as its CEO. But his journey began long before he was born – when his grandmother, the late Mutiara Siti Fatimah Djokosoetono, founded Bluebird in 1972.

In the 53 years since, the company has gone public on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, weathered storms stirred up by venture-backed disruptors, and put in place new technologies like electric vehicles.

Through it all, Bluebird has remained family-owned, operating under strict rules. The company’s market capitalization is at 4.8 trillion rupiah (US$293 million), and it plans to add 1,000 EVs to its fleet by the end of this year. And it’s still alive and kicking in the super app era.

After a five-year slump in the Grab-Gojek rivalry, Bluebird’s revenue and profits have been climbing again since 2020. Djokosoetono attributes this turnaround to taking a different path that includes partnerships with those very rivals or “co-opetitors,” as he calls them.

“People assume taxi companies are traditional,” he tells Tech in Asia in an interview. “But this business has been built on technology and discipline for decades.”

From heir to operator

When Djokosoetono was a child, Bluebird’s headquarters was in Jakarta’s Menteng neighborhood – a short walk from his primary school. So he spent time after classes and on weekends playing around his father’s office, “making a mess of documents” and hanging out with drivers.

There were no explicit expectations that he would eventually join the family business. Djokosoetono never seriously considered it until he went to university. His cousins and sisters were part of the company by then, and seeing that made working there feel inevitable.

Family businesses come with some unique challenges, especially when it comes to who gets to lead.

Some assume the job will be passed down the family line, regardless of the person’s readiness or suitability. This can create drama, slow down decisions, or push out good talent who are not kin.

See also: Bluebird’s answer to Grab and Gojek? Not discounts

When Djokosoetono ultimately joined Bluebird in 2000, a second-generation family member was at the helm: his father, Purnomo Prawiro. By then, the family was already talking about how relatives should ideally enter the company.

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