Indonesia ecommerce rank - a dumb review

Ecommerce is not new thing. Back in dawn of this century ( or millenium) early 2000s, internet get strong momentum due to increases of PC user along with improve of hardware and software - mainly user friendliness of Microsoft Windows. Manual office and school works are being converted using so called 'information system'. Webmail and internet portals are the king of internet. Name one. Yahoooooo, you're right.

Some creative people came up idea to bring shopping experience into electronic, so then we were introduce to Ebay, Alibaba (1999) which still big player after almost 15 years later. But more names we only know them as legend and only found in history books. la to name some. And one the Indonesia legend is "www.precision.co.id", first Indonesia professional ecommerce selling IT related stuff. Hello there? Are you still there?

They did not succeed, at least most of it did not made until age 10. Died young. People found they are as not free as go to shopping malls to shop. They have to sit tight on a predifined station which connect to internet to shop. I need to setup modem dial up baut rare to 56.6 kbps in order to just open one page in one minute. Let alone shopping, news reading is still a hassle. After several pages opened, telephone bills start to cause headache. Lot more people cant afford the luxury.

Thanks to mobile telecommunication, the second wave of internet started to pulse.
It bring fresh blood to online activity, especially after mobile technology are become faster and affordable. Second wave of ecommerce is on the raise above horizon. They are actually not born yesterday.  Their seed is in ground awaiting right moment to grow and flourish. Tokopedia founded on 2009. Bukalapak founded on 2010. Lazada founded on 2012. You name it, google will tell you.

Just until recent years, together with improvement of infrastructure from telecommunication, roads and electricity, ecommerce can ride the wave of success. Yes, very basic factor - INFRASTRUCTURE. With good transportation, we can estimate when our package will arrive. With good telecomunication, buyers are keen to check back every few minutes whether any ongoing flash sale. Just ensure to recharge your device when it is low batt, thanks to electricity.

Different class different style
I often make jokes about how ecommerce is being classified. The lowest class is 'Bukalapak'. As a 'lapak' (non-permanent street kiosk) they are often become victim of Satpol PP, civil security force. Middle class we have 'Tokopedia', as they now a Toko, permanent shop or building. At top class we have : Jakmall. Full air-con, nice aisle, luxury shops and fancy restaurant is what we associated with mall. The lesson is : name is very important.

Key to sucess gain customer loyalty  check out decision.
Aggressive promotion accros peer is just to keep up each other, so one doesn't follow will left behind. Next is upgrade site to living platform, which may starts with selling goods now also serving : air ticketing, top up, pay bills, pay anything-you-name-it, hotel, investment, property, used-car, tax, order pizza, complaint about public service, traffic jam, upload video, look for a long lost friend, review a space trip, watch bactery plays. Although some service sound ridiculous for now, but with proper business plan, it can be cash in. But not now.

For now, please focus on : expand seller base to get best price, more product variety, and local shop (and warehouse) to cuts shipping time and cost.
One I need to underline is have a internal police to fight fake seller, good/picture/description doesnt match actual product, crazy cheap laptops, or simply take down those selling iPhone running latest Android.

Be a smart shopper and dont get caught for seller.

Affordable internet but with fair usage policy

Affordable internet finally available !

With a series of new regulation from Ministry of Communication and Information (Menkominfo), now internet subcription is getting affordable. Compare to my last two (article 1 & article 2) article related to internet rates, currently unlimited internet is available with cheaper monthly fee.

Started of by Indosat with its Broom Prabayar Unlimited, price start from Rp. 100.000 (US$ 9) per month, you can enjoy unlimited internet. Even nothing much to be proud of beside the cheap price, but after launched several months, Indosat is overwhelming with increasing of subscriber, exceed their capasity. As demand increases, it's getting hard to the get the Broom's starter pack.

Then followed by XL with XL internet unlimited prabayar, at approximately same rates, XL plot the service with only 250K subscriber. Not really sure if the quota has been surpased, but same thing happen, no where we can get the starter pack. Telkomsel recently lauched their first unlimited prepaid internet. As they claim have suprerior QoS, monthly fee slightly higher than other competitor.

All these service above carying same one term : Fair Usage Policy. As now limiting access no longer acceptable for subcriber, Fair Usage policy seems to be best fit for current situation. Fair usage policy is limiting connection speed when a sucbriber reach certain quota. Most GSM internet provider lock the speed at 64kbps when quota reach 2-3GB. This is quite tricky because they mostly use term of Broadband 3.5G speed in their promotion, although the maximum speed only at 256kbps.

My personal choice for home internet is Firstmedia. Although some said the customer service isnt nice (in solving problem) but as long as you have no problem with your access, I almost can say its beyond expectation. With Rp. 135.000 (+tax) (US$ 12), speed we can get up to 384kpbs flat no fair usage policy. A real download could reach almost 50KBps from Rapidshare.
So far, I'm quite happy with this service. Hope this can help you decide what the personal internet connection that suits you.