5 contenders up against Tokopedia, Indonesia’s newly-crowned ecommerce giant

Active Indonesian subdomain for AliExpress.

Tech in Asia took a peek last night at the localized Indonesian version of AliExpress, Alibaba’s global consumer-facing marketplace, which appears to have launched in stealth this month. The site features product listings in the local language, and accepts payments in Rupiah through Doku, one of the largest online payment gateways in Indonesia (hat-tip to DailySocial, who came across the local AliExpress site first).

While it’s still unclear how long the site has been live, the discovery comes just days after consumer-to-consumer marketplace Tokopedia announced funding of US$100 million from SoftBank and Seqouia Capital. But the news could evoke speculation about whether or not Indonesia is on the eve of a large-scale ecommerce race.

“If we can convince and carry the level of the company to match what the investors expect, it will provide them with the confidence to put money into other startups,” Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya told The Wall Street Journal. “This is what happened in Silicon Valley, China, India, Japan and South Korea. One story of success inspires other stories, and it eventually snowballs.” Tanuwijaya believes that in one to two years, Indonesia’s tech sector will see more investments equivalent to or exceeding US$100 million.

See: Indosat partners with Softbank to launch $50M fund in Indonesia

But before we start drawing conclusions on what the next big ecommerce moves will be, let’s take a look at a few contenders with marketplace business models that already exist in the archipelago. In no particular order, here are five that will need to stay competitive with Tokopedia.

BukaLapak

Consumer-to-consumer marketplace BukaLapak has operated in Indonesia since 2010. As of this year, the company claims to facilitate more than Rp 500 million (US$41,000) worth of online transactions daily. Originally, BukaLapak was meant to be a portfolio builder for its parent company Suitmedia, a Jakarta-based digital agency, but soon gained market traction and received funding at various stages from investors like Rebright Partners and GREE Ventures through the Batavia Incubator, as well as Aucfan, IREP, 500 Startups, and IMJ Investment Partners.

BukaLapak makes a good candidate for Indonesia’s next marketplace to grab a large investment, as the site has seen steady growth since its inception. BukaLapak’s mobile app went live this year, and it currently has a SimilarWeb rank of 74 in Indonesia.

Lazada Indonesia

Elevenia

Qoo10

Rakuten Belanja Online