This startup combats ewaste in Indonesia by selling refurbished gadgets

Kukuruyuk founder and CEO Ernest Tjahjana (far right).

29-year-old Ernest Tjahjana is the founder and CEO of Kukuruyuk, and claims that his company is the first ecommerce business in Indonesia specializing in selling second-hand, reconditioned goods. “We’re currently focusing on refurbished products,” says Tjahjana, the former lead of Lazada Indonesia’s electronics division. “Interestingly enough, no one has ever set foot in this category, since it was thought to be a taboo in the Indonesian market.”

According to Tjahjana, the main reason local ecommerce players shy away from the refurbished realm is the Indonesian market’s notoriety for dishonest practices. Tjahjana claims the archipelago has made a bad name for itself by labelling goods as new, when in fact they are rebuilt, reconditioned, or refurbished. “These kinds of acts have brought down the image of refurbished products in Indonesia,” he argues. “However, in other countries, refurbished products have been part of daily life where ewaste is minimized and controlled.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines ewaste as all electronic and electrical equipment that does not function or is not being used for its original purpose. Amelia Rachmatunisa of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment claims in a report that despite the country’s progress on waste management, there are still many regulatory boxes that must be ticked before Indonesia will be able to sustainably manage ewaste.

See: Recycling startup bags $16.5M in funding as ewaste piles up in a gadget-loving India

Tjahjana claims the Indonesian government is pushing hard for big electronic companies to open factories in the archipelago. This, in turn, will increase the amount of ewaste in Indonesian landfills. “Eventually, the government will need to figure out a way to differentiate between a complete electronic waste and a refurbished product,” Tjahjana says in reference to a moment in time he believes Kukuruyuk will thrive. “Distributors, retailers, and brand owners alike do need these kinds of channels to sell products that can’t be categorized as new.”

Tjahjana established Kukuruyuk just four months ago but already claims his site is the largest ecommerce business of its kind in Indonesia. He declined to share the number of registered users or web traffic on Kukuruyuk, but says the site is “tripling” its user base each week (although without exact figures, it’s impossible to get an idea of the company’s actual growth). Kukuruyuk currently has a global Alexa rank of 854,091 and a local rank of 7,985 in Indonesia. The number one site that links visitors to Kukuruyuk is Indonesia’s popular online community Kaskus.

Typical of ecommerce sites, Kukuruyuk monetizes by taking a percentage of each transaction. Tjahjana did not say how high of a percentage that actually is. “Even though I said we’re monetizing, it’s not exactly our main focus for the time being […] Our focus is to change the way people think about refurbished products,” he explains.

Tjahjana adds that he hasn’t needed to do anything yet in the way of promotion and advertising. “The site is pretty much going crazy,” he mentions. “ I hugely believe that the demand is proven.”