Twitter’s Jakarta office is now open. Here are 6 reasons why Costolo is focusing on Indonesia

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo visited Indonesia yesterday, officially inaugurating Twitter’s new office in Jakarta.

At a Q&A session which also featured Rick Mulia, Twitter’s head of the Indonesia office, and representatives from two of Twitter’s partner programs in Indonesia, Costolo explained the firm’s reasons for turning its attention towards Indonesia.

Here are the six major factors:

1. Too big to ignore

Indonesia’s population clocks in at about 250 million people, and it’s a country that is particularly active on social media.

Only a fraction of the population is on the internet right now, but in the long term, this may not be a disadvantage for Twitter (see point four, below). Twitter has a big opportunity for user growth in Indonesia, and considering its overall growth is slowing down, this figure is on Costolo’s mind. Costolo said both the size and activity of Indonesian Twitter users make Indonesia an interesting market.

2. Twitter loves the Indonesian president, and the president loves Twitter

Among the most-retweeted tweets ever is a tweet by Indonesian author and political researcher Danny Januar Ali, known on Twitter as @DennyJA_WORLD, declaring his support for then-presidential-candidate Joko Widodo.

Denny JA: Dengan RT ini, anda ikut memenangkan Jokowi-JK. Pilih pemimpin yg bisa dipercaya (Jokowi) dan pengalaman (JK). #DJoJK

— Denny JA (@DennyJA_WORLD) June 4, 2014

The important role of social media in forming opinions during Indonesia’s 2014 presidential election has been highlighted by the media and by scholars.

Indonesia’s new president seems to be a fan of Twitter himself. While he was still governor of Jakarta, he publicly asked other Indonesian leaders to become active on Twitter. Admittedly, his own account @jokowi_do2 has been silent since August 2014, but the government is on many levels embracing Twitter as a tool to connect with its constituents. The current governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, is developing a smart cities program, in which Twitter plays a part. With that level of support from the government, Twitter is becoming increasingly intertwined with the way political opinions are formed and how messages and news are spread in Indonesia.