What user generated content means for Indonesian media

BuzzFeed, Reddit, 9Gag, Upworthy, Huffington Post. What do they all have in common? Yes, all are quite addictive with headlines you can’t resist clicking. But they also have an element that less-media-savvy folks may not fully understand: user generated content (or UGC as we call it in the industry).

There are many forms of UGC. Sites like 9Gag let people create silly photos and quick video clips (memes and gifs) to make you chuckle, so long as they don’t cross the line of obscenity. Sites like Tech in Asia on the other hand (yup, that’s us), attempt to get readers and stakeholders engaged with professional communities by posting their own articles about tech, venture capital, and whatever else strikes their fancy.

The big boys mentioned above are primarily based in the US. But the same phenomenon is also occurring in developing nations in Southeast Asia. Some wonder what user generated content means for markets like Indonesia, where a majority of the population is not yet online.

See: Following Zuckerberg’s visit, Internet.org launches in Indonesia

More rapid adoption

Jakarta’s Bina Nusantara University (Binus) recently published a study on the importance of brand-related UGC in a society where more than 32 million people have recently become netizens – folks who spend more than three hours per day on the internet. According to the report, around 95 percent of internet users are on social media, and the archipelago has one of the largest Facebook user bases in the world.

Recent stats say that Indonesia now has nearly 30 percent internet penetration, a staggering 10 percent hike from the year before. Unlike the West, where internet users had a chance to transition gradually from print newspapers to online media and finally to UGC, as broadband penetration rises fast in Indonesia, locals are immediately going from their local print rags to a sea of UGC on their mobile devices.

Michael Rendy, founder and CEO of Surabaya-based UGC site Keepo believes the steep transition is jarring, but an overall good thing for Indonesian media consumers. “Indonesian netizens are very critical, they react easily to any issues that interfere with their emotions – awe, anger, [and] sympathy,” says Rendy.

Rendy’s site Keepo positions itself as an alternative to mainstream local media. The site lets users build media feeds across a bunch of different channels. Some channels are reserved for topics related to humor and culture, while others showcase creative artwork and other unique stuff. Rendy claims his site currently has 2 million monthly visits, 21,000 registered users, and 72 active publishers, whom he describes as users that post at least 80 pieces of content per month.

See: Keepo is a mix between BuzzFeed, WordPress, and Twitter in Indonesia

Ignore it at your own risk

A recent Bain and Company study on behalf of the World Economic Forum says despite advances in emerging communications infrastructure, traditional print media still forms roughly 45 percent of the US$18 billion Southeast Asian media market. Indonesia’s popular newspaper Kompas is an interesting example, however, and Bain shines light on its community journalism platform Kompasiana.

On Kompasiana, members share information, opinions, and ideas in a forum that has over time morphed into something that now resembles a social media. Since the launch of its revamped website in 2008, Bain reports Kompas’s pageviews growing at a 73 percent compound annual growth rate.

Creativity as a commodity