Why Stripe might need to buckle up for a bumpy ride in Indonesia

Every day, 100k+ smart people read our newsletter. You can sign up here.

Hi readers,

A few weeks ago, my customary Sunday morning scroll on Linkedin brought me to a job advert for the position of “Indonesia expansion partnership lead.”It was posted by Stripe, the global payments powerhouse.

“About time,” I thought to myself.

Stripe’s services are available in some 40 countries around the globe, including Indonesia’s Southeast Asian neighbors Singapore and Malaysia. But for some reason, the company hasn’t set up shop yet in the region’s largest and most mouthwatering market.

It looks as though Stripe had been waiting for an opportune moment for its Indonesia entry. But in the time it had been waiting and preparing for its move, the local Stripe contenders had grown by leaps and bounds, buoyed by the surge in online commerce and payments in the market.

In fact, one of the companies, Xendit, was catapulted into the prestigious unicorn club earlier this month.

Stripe will not be in the least bit deterred. But Indonesia’s competitive landscape and regulatory hurdles will definitely give the payments firm a run for its money.

— Ardi Wirdana, journalist at Tech in Asia

TOP STORIES THIS WEEK

1️. Stripe readies Indonesia entry, but the road just got rougher
The recent boom in the payment gateway space, which has resulted in the birth of another Indonesian unicorn, will be a cause for both hope and concern for Stripe.

2. Disrupting the paycheck in SEA: a billion-dollar market with social impact?
Startups that help Southeast Asians draw wages before payday could also pull workers away from loan sharks.