Path, a social network that is only accessible through iPhone and Android devices, has been growing in popularity in Indonesia for its more-private circle of friends (unlike Facebook it limits its users to 150 friends).
But what about Facebook? Indonesia is famous for its Facebook frenzy; as the statistics above show, almost all internet users in Indonesia are Facebook users too. Some people say that Indonesians like to have as many connections as possible, which explains Facebook’s popularity, but Indonesian today are increasingly getting overwhelmed by the unknown brands and ubiquitous ads and promotions on their Facebook walls.
So when Path introduced its more private social network to Indonesian consumers, it is not surprising that Indonesians responded to it. When I asked friends what features they like most on Path, most of them said they liked to post photos and add what they are listening to, as the app’s “smart journal” concept easily lets users choose one of the following moments (photo/video, people, place, music, thought, sleep/awake) to share. That really is something new and different from Facebook.
But really, what makes posting a photo on Path so different from posting a photo on Instagram? Will they stop using Instagram, Foursquare,Twitter, Line, and Facebook once they start using Path?
Not really. In my experience, avid users of social media in Indonesia on average still have four to seven social networking apps installed and used actively on their smartphones, and indeed there are four social media services among Indonesia’s 30 most popular smartphone apps. Adopting one app doesn’t mean abandoning others. With that said, it’s not uncommon for Indonesian trends to shift rapidly, and that shapes the ubiquitous usage of multiple social media apps on their smartphones. Indonesian youth simply like to enhance their interactions with friends, colleagues, even their own parents in new ways. So when an app becomes trendy, everyone installs it to see what their friends are saying there. But by the same token, if it becomes passe, that’s when it’s going to get uninstalled.
With the great number of social media users in Indonesia and the ingrained culture of Indonesian consumers installing new apps as their friends do, there is no doubt that Path can continue to grow here in the short term. The challenge for Path, and other emerging social apps, is to retain all these Indonesian users once it has got them and to prevent itself from being discarded when the next trendy social media site comes along and people’s friends start to move there.
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