IDNtimes, a Buzzfeed for Indonesia, bags seed funding from East Ventures

Indonesian media portal IDNtimes announced today it snapped up a seed investment of an undisclosed amount from local venture capital firm East Ventures. IDNtimes is a Surabaya-based company, and hopes to become one of the most popular online media sources for news and entertainment among Indonesia’s younger generation.

IDNtimes zeroes in on content tailor-made for generation Y in Indonesia. The portal claims to differ from other local online media in topic selection, writing style, and journalistic angles, which it believes are more relevant to readers between the ages of 18 and 34. Content from IDNtimes can be accessed via its site, through YouTube, and soon on its Android and iOS apps. Currently, IDNtimes claims more than 7 million monthly visitors, with the top three cities being Jakarta, Surabaya, and Medan.

Similar to sites like Buzzfeed, IDNtimes generates revenue from native advertisements and sponsored posts. “We focus on native content marketing because [the] digital banner has become inefficient and irrelevant both to the brand itself and their audience,” says IDNtimes COO William Utomo.

See: Thinking outside the (ad) box with native advertising“IDNtimes shows a very strong execution capability. Within [a] short period of time, they managed to capture [a] large audience, mainly the millennials,” adds Willson Cuaca, managing partner of East Ventures. “As reading and distribution behavior change over time, media companies have to proactively follow and adopt. IDNtimes is a [breath of] fresh air for the media industry.”

In the local digital media realm, 7 million monthly visitors is somewhat impressive. However, IDNtimes did not always position itself to appeal to millennials and Generation Y. In the past, it was a portal which aimed to deliver Indonesian news in bite-sized portions of 100 words or less. Nevertheless, it soon pivoted to become what we see today

Millennial media is something that is seemingly popular in the archipelago these days. IDNtimes competes directly with names like Hipwee and MalesBanget, but also indirectly with fellow Surabaya-based user generated site Keepo, all of which also claim to pull in several million monthly users.

Utomo says IDNtimes is investing heavily into its online TV channel IDNtv, as he claims it has high potential to bring in big-name clients and large accounts. According to him, brands like Samsung, OPPO, Kapal Api, Heineken, Bir Bintang, Huawei, and Mattel have already run campaigns on IDNtimes. “We charge Indonesian Fortune 500 companies anywhere between US$1,000 to US$30,000 depending on their campaign,” explains Utomo.

The firm says the fresh capital will also be used to grow the team, improve user experience, ramp up content creation, widen distribution, and revamp the website.