The Rise of Indonesia’s Digital Industry in the Next Normal

The arrival of the coronavirus has disrupted every major parts of society’s life. 

Due to the spread of the virus through close contact, social distancing is enacted by governments all around the world. As a result of this, many people turn toward digital platform for commerce. CNBC reported that “Indonesia’s digital consumers surged 37%” during the lockdown with Bukalapak, one of Indonesia’s e-commerce company, “recording a 130% surge in transactions”. Even as Indonesia’s citizen is preparing themselves for the next normal, with the COVID-19 still remain at large in the world today, Indonesia’s digital industry will still likely see an increase in their profit margin even during the next normal.

This optimistic projection is shared by the e-Conomy SEA 2019 report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company. It stated that Indonesia’s digital industry is on its way to reach $130 billion mark by 2025. This growth can be especially seen in the e-commerce sector. Redseer, a management consulting company, reportedly showed that Indonesia’s e-commerce industry is expected to achieve 50% year-on-year growth. There is also a likely chance that this increase of users will likely remain even when the country embraces the next normal. Redseer’s Southeast Asia partner, Roshan Raj Behera, went on to say that about 40% of their survey participants said that they would utilize e-commerce even after the pandemic is over.

Other leading company in Indonesia’s digital industry, such as Gojek, also saw a rise in their bottom line. The company was shown to have their annualized total transaction value increased by six-fold during the pandemic. In addition, according to a study conducted by LD FEB UI, there has been an increase of transaction on GoMart (44%) and GoFood (26%), two services that provides users with daily necessities in order to survive the pandemic. This study also found that large percentage of the participants plan to keep using Gojek, though it is not clear if their rate of use will remain the same during the next normal.

With all of these evidences, it can be expected that Indonesia’s digital industry will rise for some time, even when the next normal arrive. It is up to individual companies to maintain their service’s quality to capitalize on this trend while also taking care of their employee properly.

SEO Words:

Indonesia’s Digital Industry, next normal, increase, company, pandemic

(This is an article that I wrote to apply for a content writing position in a certain company. I received the job offer, but I turned it down for other opportunity)