10 highlights of Indonesia’s tech industry in 2013

Let’s look back at what the Indonesian tech industry went through last year. It’s not just a history lesson, as it also points the way forward to new trends in Indonesia in the new year.

Indonesia now has 74.6 million internet users, and Jakarta citizens are now getting a taste of 4G speed. That will encourage more people to get online. Here are ten other tech highlights that we saw in 2013:

1. Indonesia gets more chatty

2013 was the year when messaging apps battled it out for the throne in Indonesia. Japan-based Line was the first-mover among the new wave of chat apps that are aiming to replace old and staid BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). China-made WeChat and Korea’s KakaoTalk also entered with a bang, spending big money on celebrity-filled TV ads to lure in young Indonesians. Israel-based Viber launched its Indonesian language version last year, but it could lose out due to the aggressive marketing strategy employed by its Asian rivals.

Line now has 14 million users in Indonesia while KakaoTalk has 13 million. WeChat hasn’t revealed any numbers for the country but it’s growing pretty strongly thanks to its visibility boost from the joint venture with local media conglomerate MNC.

Of course, BBM, which is now available on Android and iOS, will also be looking to fight back in Indonesia. While the future of BlackBerry’s phone business is still uncertain, its BBM app has been well received here.

2. Blood in e-commerce

It all looked rosy for Multiply in December 2012. The team was looking forward to its rebranding and transition to become a fully-fledged marketplace site. Fast forward a few months and the team was disbanded and the site shut down. This shows how ruthless and rich its investor, MIH, must be. Multiply’s investor decided that they would rather allocate the funds to its other portfolio company, classifieds site TokoBagus.

(Read: Andi S. Boediman says Multiply’s demise could be a good thing for Indonesia’s e-commerce industry)Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten had a rough year in 2013 with its local joint venture partner, MNC Group. The pair split up and Rakuten went alone. Rakuten is still running its e-commerce venture in Indonesia, while MNC Media turned its attention to its aforementioned project with China’s internet giant Tencent.

3. Big three telcos reach out to startups

In the past few years, Indonesia’s telcos competed with the each other over prices and the usual services like calls and SMS. They all decided that there’s new battlefield in the OTT (over-the-top) segment (or as we know it, stuff that uses a mobile web connection). Telkomsel – the nation’s biggest telco – launched its Teman Dev initiative to reach out to tech startups, Indosat worked together with Mountain Ventures to launch its accelerator program called Ideabox, and XL Axiata reportedly plan to open a local app store soon.

It seems the nation’s telcos finally understand startups, and how consumers want to use more apps on their phones. In a related note, XL Axiata acquired another telco, Axis, to become Indonesia’s second biggest telco. That meant it has leapfrogged Indosat.

4. More payment solutions

Indonesia – as with many other developing countries – still have problem with its online payment infrastructure. While we have local players like Indomog, UniPin, Doku, Veritrans, and Ipaymu, there are still more of them arriving in the form of BBM Money, CIMB Niaga’s Rekening Ponsel, and Mandiri E-Cash.

BBM Money is an e-wallet service that requires its users to have a bank account at Permata Bank, so that doesn’t really solve the core problem. What’s awesome about Rekening Ponsel and E-Cash is that both those e-wallet services don’t require users to have any bank accounts. We’ll see if the three of them can help change Indonesia’s payment infrastructure for the better in 2014.

5. Marketplaces everywhere

6. More Chinese services coming in

7. Anonymous Indonesia gets angry

8. Bad business for CDMA

9. Change of leadership at Kaskus

10. BlackBerry no longer king in Indonesia

Check out the 30 funding rounds and acquisitions from Indonesia in 2013: