This is the first post in our series exploring Asian startups, where each day we’ll explore some leading startups and 2.0 services from each country in the region. More info here .
Indonesia is a country that isn’t well understood in the West. After years of one party rule, Indonesia has emerged as the largest Muslim democracy in the world (234 million people) and a slow opening up of the local economy has seen an emergent middle class. Internet penetration in Indonesia is growing, but still only totals 20 million users, not helped in the least by Indonesia’s geography of 17,508 islands of which around 6,000 are inhabited.
Here’s some of the startups and 2.0 services making their presence felt in Indonesia.
What they say:
Moodmill is a social mood management website. It’s a personal mood management, a log, a quick ‘n easy website for managing and sharing your short logs with your contacts.
In use: Moodmill is a Twitter hybrid that combineds short messaging with social networking style mood statements. A professional service that has come to the attention of sites such as ReadWriteWeb.
Layartancap
What they say:
“Layartcancap.com is a video streaming website located in IIX (Indonesia Internet eXchange) so can be faster access for Indonesia users.”
In use: Layartcancap is Indonesia’s version of YouTube. The site may not be as well designed as American services, but it serves the local community well.
Kronologger
Not available in English, Kronologger states on its logo “Indonesia’s microblogging service.” Simply this is an Indonesian Twitter with a smart design and decent local user base.
Fupei
An Indonesian social network similar to MySpace, but localized.
There are probably more Indonesian startups, and if you know of any, please feel free to comment. The last word from the English language Jakarta Post:
These new developments indicate that Indonesian local content has grown rapidly. And since all content is placed with local hosting providers, of course it can save Internet bandwidth significantly.
Despite the fact that the Indonesia’s Web 2.0 services are mostly cloned off international service models, the potential exists to develop and explore them for the local market.
It’s not easy to create truly original services in this field, and the real competition lies in creating an appropriate business model and in attracting the community.
