Edi Taslim on Kompas, Digital Media, and Startups

At our Startup Asia Jakarta 2012 event in Indonesia, we were lucky to hear from the vice director of Kompas.com, Edi Taslim, on his company and the startup scene in Indonesia. Below is are some paraphrased highlights of his talk with our own Willis Wee.

#11:33: Being a conventional media company we are very focused on news-based products. We want to get some ideas meet new people who have ideas on digital industries. And of course we want to increase our own market share.

#11:34: Urbanesia is very interesting for us, we formed an alliance with them, and we want to be more active with them in the future. (Is it an investment or acquisition?) It’s more of an investment, it’s about 60 percent. We plan to have about $500,000 US, and we will soon plan a new design for Urbanesia, and we hope to do a video channel for Urbanesia.

#11:36: We’re very focused on iOS and Android phone. For Windows Phone we will have three apps on that platform as well.

#11:38: The reason why we participate in the startup industry is because we want to learn as well. We have been amazed by their ideas, intelligence, and the spirit – many of them really believe in their products and that’s one of the number one reasons why they are successful.

#11:39: This year we plan to have our own micropayment systems because we have so many services that require payments, not just payments, but microsystem. We hope we can do an ebook system by the end of the year. We want to have our own kindle. We want to create an ecosystem where people can browse and buy books in Indonesia.

#11:41: (Plans to invest in any startups or acquire?) Kompas is looking at gaming startups, for acquisition, investment, and also partnering. We also want to focus on books in the next few years.

#11:43: Print people always say digital is disrupting. We consume news via many platforms, and this creates a chaotic problem in the newsroom. Journalists have to be able to photograph, take video. We’re doing a lot of trial and error in this sort of newsroom integration and culture change. We’re still learning, and I think we have to jump in with both feet. If you really want to do it, you can’t just test the water, you have to jump in.

This is a part of our coverage of Startup Asia Jakarta 2012, our startup event running on June 8 and 9. You can follow along on Twitter at @startupasia, on our Facebook page, on Google Plus, or via RSS.