‘Buzzfeed of Indonesia’ hits sixth profitable year as IPO looms

A couple of years after going public, BuzzFeed has seen its shares plunge while closing units like BuzzFeed News. But Indonesia’s IDN, which had begun by following BuzzFeed’s youth-focused playbook, has had the opposite trajectory: 2023 marked its sixth consecutive profitable year.

IDN co-founder and CEO Winston Utomo tells Tech in Asia that the company grew its net profit by a whopping 24x – from around US$200,000 in 2022 to US$4.8 million in 2023. This growth came on the back of rising revenue, which hit US$34 million last year.

A Popbela beauty event in Yogyakarta / Photo credit: IDN

Winston says the Jakarta-based startup is now “IPO-ready” and credits the growth to its diversification efforts. While its news arm, IDN Times, remains a “pillar” for the company, the firm has also evolved to include three other segments: livestreaming, entertainment, and the creator economy (services that aim to help influencers).

Still, “our goal is the same. We want to become a platform and ecosystem for Indonesia’s younger generations,” the CEO says.

Hyperfocus on youth

IDN categorizes its revenue into three parts: advertising, content, as well as platforms and other revenue. Advertising covers deals like sponsorships, while income from selling tickets for events counts as content revenue.

According to Winston, roughly 65% of the company’s 2023 revenue came from advertising, 26% from content, and the rest from platforms and other revenue. He did not disclose further numbers or share specific breakdowns for each segment.

So far, IDN’s mission has remained consistent to its goals at launch: bridge the information gap and give easy access to news and content for all Indonesians, and the launch of IDN Times marked the beginning of this venture. The platform quickly gained popularity among millennials and Gen Z, with the two groups forming over 90% of the company’s audience.

Initially, the company opened new brands that complemented IDN Times, such as women-focused digital media firm Popbela and food platform Yummy. It then launched Indonesia Creators Economy (ICE) in 2017 – a platform that helps brands pick and choose creators and influencers to work with.

From then on, acquisitions became IDN’s primary mode of growth, a strategy it outlined as early as 2019. Its acquisition deals included esports company GGWP.ID, which it bought that year, and its 2020 acquisition of independent film studio Demi Istri Production.

Indonesian idol gorup JKT48 / Photo credit: JKT48

Livestreaming became a new vertical in 2021, when IDN started offering the service on its platforms. IDN’s entry into livestreaming came after the company realized that millennials and Gen Z had grown to embrace the media form.

“That’s what we saw from countries like Japan, China, and Korea,” said William Utomo, IDN’s co-founder and COO as well as Winston’s brother. “And that trend is going to come in Indonesia as well.”

IPO in the ‘right time’