JakartaPost-Nov 18, 2024
The size of Indonesia’s digital economy, measured in gross merchandise value (GMV), is estimated to see a rebound to double-digit growth this year, driven by key players focusing on monetization strategies to reach profitability, but follow-up funding remains subdued. The country’s GMV is projected to grow by 13 percent to US$90 billion by the end of the year after previously expanding by only 6 percent last year. That is according to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia report published annually on Nov. 5 by tech giant Google, Singapore-based Temasek and the United States-based research firm Bain & Company. The archipelago accounted for a third of ASEAN GMV at $263 billion. “Indonesia’s digital economy has grown more than three times compared with the past six years,” Google Indonesia country director Veronica Utami said in a press briefing at Google’s Jakarta office on Nov. 13, citing the country’s GMV was only $27 billion in 2018. GMV typically serves as a key indicator for assessing the performance of the digital economy sector, as tech companies only collect revenues from fees charged upon merchandise sold in a given period of time. E-commerce remains the country’s largest contributor to the GMV, though it is projected to slow by 11 percent year-on-year (yoy) to $65 billion this year. Platforms like ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, Sea Group’s Shopee, Alibaba’s Lazada and Google’s recently launched YouTube Shopping, have driven growth in Indonesia’s digital commerce industry. Read more at:
