Jakarta will host a large demonstration on May 20, 2025.

About 25,000 online ride-hailing drivers from Java and Sumatra, organized by Asosiasi Pengemudi Ojol Garda Indonesia, are expected to gather in the capital.

Participants plan to suspend app services, which may disrupt operations on platforms such as Gojek, Grab, and Maxim.

The protest will also target offices of ride-hailing companies.

Participants intend to disable their applications from midnight on the day of the demonstration.

This action will affect passenger rides, food delivery, and courier services.

🔗 Source: Bisnis Indonesia

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Persistent labor struggles in Indonesia’s gig economy reaching a boiling point

The May 2025 protest represents a culmination of years of escalating labor activism among Indonesia’s app-based drivers, not a sudden development.

Similar protests have steadily increased in frequency and scale, with 24 protests involving around 22,080 drivers documented in 2020, growing to 28 protests in 2021, and a major demonstration with thousands in Jakarta in August 2024 12.

Driver incomes have faced persistent pressure since the pandemic, when average daily earnings plummeted from 266,225 IDR in February 2020 to just 89,267 IDR by April 2020, a devastating 67% decrease as companies reduced incentives 1.

The current demands for 10% commission caps and fare revisions directly address this long-term income erosion, with some drivers reportedly earning less than 100,000 IDR ($7) for long working hours 2.

Organizations like Garda, which claims to represent 400,000 members, have evolved from loose communities into structured labor movements capable of coordinating nationwide actions with specific policy demands 2.

2️⃣ The paradox of platform prosperity amid driver precarity

Gojek’s transformation from a small call center with 20 drivers in 2010 to a “super app” valued at approximately $9.5 billion by 2019 highlights the contrast between platform success and worker struggles 3.

Recent Gojek developments