Skip to main content

Understanding Indonesian (cyber) Needs

I know that all markets are different, but Indonesian cyber market is quite unique. People outside Indonesia don't know that Indonesia is the biggest market of BlackBerry products. Or that we rank #3 in the number Facebook users. The most important thing is why?

I believe the answer to this question is related to our culture. For example, we tend to talk not to write. When people have minutes of meeting in writing, we don't have one :) [no, I am not joking.] Perhaps, we are more youtube than wikipedia.

Our lives are mostly entertainment, not a learning one. If Westerners get a bigger bandwidth, they will think of distance learning. But for us it is time for karaoke online or online games or online chat :)

Do you know the main driver of BlackBerry success in Indonesia? It's because of women and facebook. That was the main, original, driver. Many Indonesian women bought Blackberry to chat with their friends through Facebook. And when I say, chat, it is really really intense. The next reason was ... reunion. Facebook is the driver of many reunions in Indonesia. Reunions with your university / college fellows, high school buddies, even elementary school reunions. And, there are numerous social problems related to this.

To understand all of this, you have to do research in Indonesia. You have to be here to understand it. No other way. Unfortunately, there is no research center for Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and the like in Indonesia. I've been telling them to open a small research center here, but they are not listening.

Oh well. Watch this ...
BlackBerry is going to loose their market in Indonesia. Millions (cellphone users) are switching to Android. (And yes, the number is millions!)
Labels:

Comments

King Tirto said…
Our needs are basically the same as any other country. There are several reasons that in my humble opinion is also hindering the progress of ICT in Indonesia, namely:

1. Lack of good infrastructure (fiber optics networks)
2. Availability and Affordability
3. Lack of government initiatives to roll-out NBN (National Broadband Networks)

In the 21st century, broadband (infrastructure) availability and affordability is key to the success of surviving the global economy competitions. Make it more available and affordable to the people.
3:11 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Himbauan Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia

Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia, Saya mengharapkan anda tidak melakukan penyerangan atau/dan pengrusakan situs-situs Indonesia dan Malaysia. Saya mengerti bahwa akhir-akhir ini beberapa masalah di dunia nyata membuat kita kesal dan marah. Namun kekesalan tersebut sebaiknya tidak dilimpahkan ke dunia maya (cyberspace). Semestinya sebelum melakukan aksi yang berdampak negatif, kita bisa melakukan langkah-langkah positif seperti melakukan dialog (melalui email, mailing list, bulletin board, blog, dan media elektronik lainnya). Kita harus ingat bahwa kita hidup bertetangga dan bersaudara. Yang namanya hidup bertetangga pasti mengalami perbedaan pendapat. Mari kita belajar bertetangga dengan baik. Saya berharap agar kita yang hidup di dunia maya mencontohkan bagaimana kita menyelesaikan permasalahan dengan kepala dingin dan hati yang lapang, sehingga para pemimpin kita di dunia nyata dapat mencontoh penyelesaian damai. Mudah-mudahan mereka dapat lebih arif dan bijaksana
292 comments
Read more

More bad news with Malaysia - Indonesia

I've got more emails and news about bad news between Indonesia and Malaysia. To be exact, there was a news about RELA (not sure what that is) that goes out after Indonesians in Malaysia. There were incidents where they hit Indonesians, rob, and do horrible things. I cannot even write this is my blog. I am so sad and frustrated. What's going on with Malaysia (and Malaysians)? What did we - Indonesian(s) - do to deserve this? I thought there should be less boundary between Indonesia and Malaysia. But ... What's going on there, bro & sis? You know, more Indonesians now feel that they are offended by Malaysians. I can tell you that this bad feeling is increasing. This is a bad publicity towards Malaysia. People are now creating various calling names, such as "Malingsia" (it's a short of "maling" [thief] "siah" [you, Sundanese]), and worse.
34 comments
Read more

Say NO to APJII!

Prolog At the end of 1997, I went back to Indonesia from my studies and work in Canada. The .ID domain management in Indonesia at that time was in a confusing state. Nobody wanted to manage it. Universitas Indonesia (UI) - the original maintainer - was in a fight with APJII (the Association of Indonesian ISP). In the end, IANA gave me a mandate to manage the .ID domain. Since then, I manage the .ID domain with open management. There are problems, but mostly minors. Until recently, when APJII (again) is trying to take over the .ID domain management from my team. Here's a short info to give you a head start. Short summary APJII (the association of ISP in Indonesia) is trying to takeover the .ID domain management in Indonesia. They have tried and will try everything to take over. Long description I've been managing the .ID domain since the end of 1997. At that time, nobody wanted to run the domain management. First of all, a brief description of how we run things. To run the .ID d
32 comments
Read more