VIVASocio Mashups Social Media, News, and E-commerce For Indonesia

The online world in Indonesia is buzzing about the arrival of VIVASocio, a new e-commerce site by Indonesian giant Bakrie Group and popular news site, VIVAnews.

Remarkably, this site combines social media, news portals, and ecommerce into one single platform, blending web elements that we usually experience separately.

VIVASocio is also believed to be Bakrie Group’s first step towards BTEL 2.0, Bakrie’s vision to integrate all Bakrie media and tech – Bakrie Telecom, Bakrie Connectivity, Visi Cipta Media – under this one company, which is a holding company for ANTV, TvOne and VIVAnews.

Using the tagline “In crowd we trust“, VIVASocio has an interface similar to social media platforms, powered with news content provided by VIVAnews. Visitors can log in using their Facebook accounts, and then fill out the registration form to use the site. Once registered, users can follow other members, find friends, or update their status. Users can also ‘Post Commerce’, which allows users to sell their goods on VIVASocio.

In accordance with its tagline, as more friends join and follow each other, more people will be able to see the goods you’re promoting on the site. Users can also view goods from other sellers, and follow news feeds on their own timeline.

Since VIVASocio is still in beta version, there’s not much activity in there for now. But I expect that VIVASocio will grow quickly, given that the development of e-commerce in Indonesia is on the rise. Nonetheless, VIVASocio faces competition from other e-commerce sites, like Tokobagus, Blibli, Multiply and Rakuten.

It’ll be very interesting to watch how VIVASocio develops, and how it’ll affect the Indonesian social commerce scene. Stay tuned!