Indonesia’s questionable unicorn

JD.id’s recent declaration that it’s become a unicorn has been met with doubts from Southeast Asia’s industry insiders.

“The concept of paper valuation has reached new heights,” says a senior executive from a rival firm.

Skeptics have reason to question the claim: Easily accessible numbers portray JD.id, the Indonesian arm of Chinese ecommerce giant JD, as a small player that’s lagging behind its competitors.

The way in which JD.id was valued also aroused suspicion.

JD.id’s unmanned store in Indonesia / Photo credit: JD.id

JD has declined to comment, while JD Indonesia’s executives did not respond to Tech in Asia’s messages.

The ecommerce company’s valuation seems to be linked to another unicorn: Indonesian super app Gojek.

In October 2018, JD was revealed to have joined Gojek’s series E round.

Three months later, The Information reported that Gojek was in talks to invest in JD.id at a valuation of over US$1 billion. The super app was also thinking of buying a majority stake in a separate entity, JD’s Indonesian logistics joint venture, J-Express.

A source familiar with Gojek tells Tech in Asia that the company did not invest in JD.id in the end. Instead, the two firms signed a commercial agreement. Meanwhile, J-Express now says on its website and LinkedIn page that it’s a subsidiary of Gojek.

Gojek has declined to answer Tech in Asia’s questions.

No numbers to back it up

Even if an investment was made, JD.id’s user engagement numbers do not back up its claim of being a unicorn.

An executive at a competing company says, “We don’t bump up against JD.id much.”

Citing confidential data, he adds that JD.id’s user numbers are in “distant fifth” in the country and have been “static” year-on-year.

Putting on a show?