LinkAja officially joins Gojek’s payment ecosystem, starting with GoTix

LinkAja, an e-wallet owned by four Indonesian state-owned banks and the country’s largest telecommunications firm, is joining the Gojek payment ecosystem. It is now available as a payment option for ticketing service GoTix (alongside GoPay, the startup’s native mobile wallet), and has also expanded into Gojek’s other services, including rides.

Photo credit: Gojek

“Effective immediately, LinkAja users can purchase movie tickets, concert tickets, and even tickets to local and international attractions through the Gojek app,” said Kristy Nelwan, the company’s vice president of corporate communications, in a statement provided to Tech in Asia. “In the near future, the LinkAja use case will expand throughout the Gojek ecosystem, [starting] with GoRide and GoCar.”

The company claims that GoTix, which was launched back in 2015, sold more than 10 million tickets in 2018.

Because of its government-linked origins, LinkAja’s use cases primarily focus on public services, such as toll road fees and fares for Jakarta’s commuter train system. GoPay, on the other hand, mostly serves small-to-medium enterprises (which make up 90% of the e-wallet’s merchants), though it has also worked with government bodies like the Semarang municipal authority in its “smart city” initiative.

The Gojek-LinkAja partnership, initially announced last July, is a significant development among Indonesia’s many digital payment players as they strive to win the country’s vast underbanked population.

“GoPay sees this as a great opportunity to further educate the Indonesian public about the advantages of non-cash transactions,” added Winny Triswandhani, GoPay’s head of corporate communications.

The super app’s key rival, Grab, was recently said to be in talks to merge Ovo – the equivalent to GrabPay in Indonesia – with competitor Dana. The messaging app WhatsApp is also said to be in talks with Gojek, Ovo, and Dana to launch mobile payments in the country.

Gojek is in the midst of raising its series F round, with company president Andre Soelistyo saying it’s on track to secure up to US$2.5 billion. The company also recently launched GoPlay, a video-streaming service.