A breakthrough year: Indonesia’s startup landscape in 2015 (INFOGRAPHIC)

By any standards, 2015 brought breakthrough to Indonesia’s tech sector. The impact of tech companies became tangible in the offline world. Transportation network companies like Go-Jek and GrabTaxi were protagonists in this transformation and flooded the streets with their branded motorcyclists. New and cheap delivery services offered by Go-Jek became the talk of the town.

Slowly, the impact is being felt in smaller cities too. Go-Jek launched in a handful of cities outside of Java this year, like Medan, Balikpapan, and Makassar. Billboards and TV screens all over the country were dominated by the bold adverts of commerce companies like Tokopedia and MatahariMall.

Government plans to get into startup investing have failed to materialize this year, but private venture capital is flowing quite freely to fuel promising tech companies, both from local and international investors. Both the number of seed and later stage deals saw significant increase from last year.

But there are problems when it comes to expressing the development of Indonesia’s tech landscape in pure figures. For example, many startups don’t declare their funding rounds – possibly to avoid competition, taxes, or public scrutiny.

Another complicating factor is Indonesia’s dreaded regulatory environment. Many startups choose to register company headquarters elsewhere – even if their most relevant market is Indonesia. This slightly skews the facts when we try to look at the Indonesian ecosystem in isolation.

Keeping these in mind, here’s an attempt to single out what makes Indonesia’s startup landscape tick in 2015.