Ebay wants to buy into Indonesia’s ecommerce race, set to increase shares in Blanja

US-based ecommerce giant eBay plans to increase its ownership in Indonesia’s MetraPlasa from 40 percent to 49 percent, local media outlet Berita Satu reports. MetraPlasa was originally established in late 2012 as a joint venture between eBay and Telkom Indonesia to head up local ecommerce initiatives. The news comes just days after the official launch of Blanja, MetraPlasa’s consumer-to-consumer ecommerce site in Indonesia.

Currently, 60 percent of MetraPlasa is controlled by Telkom. After eBay buys more shares, Telkom’s ownership will be reduced to 51 percent. “Ebay can increase to 49 percent and they can also have the option to become the majority shareholder. There are stages for them to get there and they want to do it quickly. But I can not disclose anything more,” said Telkom’s acting president director Indra Utoyo in Jakarta on Monday.

See: eBay quietly arrives in Indonesia under the name Blanja

According to Utoyo, eBay has contributed approximately US$9.2 million to MetraPlasa since 2012. Back in 2009, Telkom invested around US$5 million into a separate ecommerce company called Plasa.com. It later became a project under the MetraPlasa initiative and was merged with Blanja. Now when users search for Plasa.com, they are redirected to Blanja. The result means that Telkom and eBay have jointly invested nearly US$14.2 million into Blanja to date.

Ebay remains a strategic partner for Telkom as it will allow for future cross-border trading, and for products on the Blanja site to eventually be sold overseas. Blanja claims to have one million products on its site from only 600 sellers. It recieves a mere 50,000 visitors per day. “Currently, the revenue contribution of ecommerce to our business remains small,” says Utoyo. “But we estimate the contribution could reach 10 percent within two to three years.”