The Groupon Clones Industry in Indonesia [INTERVIEW]

We have featured Indonesian media start-up AdaDiskon here before and interviewed founder Aswin Utomo on the company’s story and vision.

Now he’s back in the hot seat for some questions regarding AkuPlusKamu, one of the many Groupon-type sites providing deals to Indonesia.

Even though Groupon acquired Disdus, there are still much drama left to play out in Indonesia when it comes to the deals and promotions space. In this interview, we will learn more about AdaDiskon’s growth and views about the online discount industry as a whole.

1. What’s the current situation the the company?

AdaDiskon’s current situation is great. I’m very happy to say that all aspects (team, revenue, traffic, partnerships, etc) are growing really fast.

2. AdaDiskon has proved to be one of the best sources for promotions and deals.  How does this make you feel?

Thank you so much for the kind words. AdaDiskon has been growing really well, especially in the second half of last year. But we never take that for granted. There are still so many aspects of AdaDiskon that still need to be fixed.

Over the past year we have learned so much about what works and what doesn’t. We are in process of revamping both AdaDiskon’s back-end and design. Our audience can expect a drastic improvement.

3. It has been months since the partnership deal with Yahoo! Koprol. What can you tell us about it?

It has been really great!. The Yahoo! Koprol team, especially Fajar, Satya, Daniel, Aryo, and Della, have been such a great partners to us and I am really happy to be working with these guys.

They are the first partners to use our new geo-location API and it has been great. We are seeing a lot of interaction and engagement with our content in Yahoo! Koprol. Koprol users can expect more content integration in the future.

4. AdaDiskon launched AkuPlusKamu, but some critics say that it will be just another Groupon clone. What are your thoughts?

I think that cynicism is justified. There have been so many GroupOn clones in Indonesia that it is hard not to think that way. But I personally think these critics should really just take it easy. Out of those 28 clones, there are probably only three or four clones in Indonesia that can be considered upper-tier clones. They are playing a big part in advancing our overall digital media industry.