Lessons about Indonesia from Startup Asia Jakarta 2012

Indonesia is starting to steal the limelight away from traditional Asian tech superstars like India and China.

According to the Jakarta Globe, the country’s US$813 billion economy expanded by 6.5 percent last year and has been getting more attention with talks of its large market size, growing middle class and early adoption of technology.

Like every market, Indonesia has its own distinct quirks and issues that entrepreneurs need to pay attention to when starting a business there.

Here are five key trends that every startup founder should look out for based on the talks and interactions at the recent Startup Asia Jakarta. Read more

Video interviews with the who’s who of Startup Asia Jakarta 2012

I’m having a great time here at Startup Asia Jakarta 2012, chatting with industry experts, community leaders and startups based here.

Here are some quick videos to show what’s happening at the event.

Andrew Darwis, CTO of Kaskus

Kaskus is Indonesian largest online community. Andrew talks about the challenges of e-payments in Indonesia and how Kaskus is building it’s own payment gateway, KasPay to solve this problem. Read more

Startup Asia Jakarta – Demystifying Indonesia

Indonesia is a big market with huge potential – but it is also a tough one to crack.

With a population close to 240 million, entrepreneurs across the rest of South East Asia and the world flock here to seek for  opportunities for growth. What they often encounter though, is a market with distinctly different consumer behaviors and market trends. For these reasons, Indonesia has earned its’ reputation for being “the Wild West of tech entrepreneurship”.

(Read: Four things you must know about Indonesia, the Wild West of tech entrepreneurship) Read more