Gojek’s big bet on warungs, explained

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Tardiness is a huge no-no especially when it comes to ride-hailing services or food delivery. But here’s the one time when being fashionably late is okay: Gojek launching its new service for warungs in Indonesia.

The Indonesian tech giant might be late compared to its fellow unicorns Bukalapak and Tokopedia and its archrival Grab — all of which have already been in the warung space for some time now — but Gojek’s timing could be a blessing in disguise.

Today we look at:

• Gojek’s game plan to modernize warungs
• Bukalapak founder making a bet on edtech
• Other newsy highlights such as TikTok getting banned in Pakistan and the Chinese app that briefly breached the Great Firewall.

How Gojek wants to win the hearts of mom-and-pop stores

The warung market is a hot, hot space in Indonesia: There are more than 3 million mom-and-pop shops in the country, with 2.5 million of them still underserved. Big players have already jumped in and Gojek is the newest player to join the gold rush with its GoToko service.

• Learn from the old: Gojek had the chance to learn from the mistakes of others – which could be why GoToko was launched in partnership with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant Unilever. Such partnerships are important in this space, as Mitra Bukalapak had learned the hard way.
• All the ins and outs: Gojek is also seasoned in same-day delivery, and for warung owners, receiving their inventory on time is crucial to business. Furthermore, GoToko offers both two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles that can handle the scale of the deliveries.
• It has a huge backing: And let’s not forget about a particular Gojek investor: Facebook. The American tech giant is also a strategic partner of Jio Platforms and has deployed WhatsApp to help the Indian company bring kirana stores online. Could we expect such a partnership with Gojek next?

Dive deeper: Gojek’s game plan to modernize warungs

Bukalapak founder makes a bet on edtech

US$12.48 billion – that’s how much the learning management system (LMS) industry will grow from 2020 through 2024. Sitting right in the middle of that space is Indonesian edtech startup Codemi and it has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Init 6, a fund led by Bukalapak founder and former head chief Achmad Zaky, to grow it.

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