Bakrie Telecom Encourages Entrepreneurship Through Mobile App

To encourage entrepreneurship in the country, Indonesian telco giant Bakrie Telecom has launched a mobile app named Usahaku especially for Esia phones. Usahaku means “My Efforts”, and is designed to help Indonesians, especially lower-middle income groups, to earn revenue through mobile technology.

In the Usahaku app there’s the “Jual Pulsa” (Sell Phone Credits) feature that allows phone users to run a business selling phone credits from all phone operators easily – which they could do from their phone, 24 hours a day. This credits-selling program is free of charge – users just have to register and follow the instructions. For this program, Bakrie Telecom collaborated with the tech company Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach and the Grameen Foundation, a global micro-lending foundation for poverty-striken people.

At the launching of the Usahaku app, the President Director of Bakrie Telecom, Anindya Bakrie, explained in the statement:

This “Usahaku” application suite is a part of our commitment to help improving Indonesia’s living standards through technology that is available and affordable.

In addition to “Jual Pulsa”, there is also the “Info Kerja” (Job Info) feature in Usahaku. This feature provides information about job vacancies in Jakarta and surrounding cities. To access this particular feature, Esia phone users must subscribe at a cost of only IDR3000 (35 cents) per week.

Both features on the Usahaku app suite currently can only be downloaded onto “Esia Fun To Go” C52 and C55 series handsets. But in the future, Bakrie Telecom will embed these applications in others handsets too.

Mobile applications that try to improve people’s quality of life are indeed a good initiative from Bakrie Telecom. Moreover, Bakrie’s products are quite affordable for Indonesians on low incomes. Recently, the handset manufacturer Nokia launched some apps that also aim to raise the quality of life – their Nokia Life Tools suite.