ID Byte is the biggest digital event in Indonesia. The series of events was under the big umbrella theme of “Building the Next World Class Company”. For those who were not able to attend, here is a summary of some of the talks:
Business Model Concept : How To Monetize? – Gautam Anand, Director, Content Partnerships @ Google Asia Pacific
– It is important to have a business model in mind but what is even more important is to focus on your users (and then everything will follow).
– Ask yourself: Are you solving a pain?
– Align incentives between users, partners and advertisers.
– Plan for different devices
Building a strong startup: from local to global – Calvin Kizana @ PicMix
– Some stats about PicMix: 11M+ active users, 35K new users everyday, 150M photos uploaded on servers, 92K reviews
– A local success: PicMix made by Indonesians
– Success is 50% due to skills and 50% due to luck
– Choose your market well: make sure to understand it
– Choose the right platform on which to develop on (PicMix was successful at first because it started on Blackberry and there was zero competition)
– Don’t over build your product. Build a product that is easy to understand
– Plan a good marketing strategy: word of mouth on its own is not good enough, the influencer factor is also very important.
– Be focused on what you are doing. Dive in and all out.
– Changing your direction is not a failure. It is a necessity.
– Ideas alone are cheap, it’s all about how you execute it.
– The people behind the ideas matter. Commitment in executing the vision.
– Be picky with what VCs you choose.
– Start with an easy concept.
The Importance of Listening To Your Customer/Audience For Your Business – Tim Falls @ SendGrid
– There is a community we are all part of – it’s the Internet. The other communities we are creating are sub communities
– Benefits of listening: understand who your community is, understand what they want and need, make people happy, reach better decisions, succeed in business
– Actors you have to listen to are not only external (your customers, partners, etc) but also internal (your staff).
– Remember that you cannot make everyone happy.
– By listening you can get a better product roadmap, write better strategy & have better customer service
– This is not marketing about ads and clicks. It’s a marketing about people.
Internationalization Strategy – Vinnie Lauria @ Golden Gate Venture
– Use AngelList: it is a great way to find investment, do research and network. Chances are, your startup idea may have been attempted in a different market: find out what mistakes they made and build on that to make yours successful.
– SEA markets: 1/2 billion people, 650K new internet users each month
– Vietnamese perform 3B mobile searches/day
– Filipinos send 1/2B messages/day
– Malaysians spend 5.3 mn/session online on mobile
– Indonesians view 633 mobile pages/month per person
– SEA accounts for 15% of Foursquare traffic
– How to decide which market you want to get into?: research (search who is doing something similar in another country), make a plan, identify who you want to talk to, travel there a few times and meet those people offline (networking)
– Some barriers to overcome when you’re expanding to another country: different ways of doing business, different language/culture, new networks of people, existing local players, trust and reputation
– Just because you’ve been doing well in one country doesn’t mean you will do well in another one
Indonesia Opportunities for Innovation in Telco – Alexander Rusli @ IndoSat
– Telcos around the world are facing the dilemma of exploding data use
– Changing customer behavior is challenging service structure established by operators.
– Telcos are trying new strategies to participate in innovation value chain
– Loyalty is no longer to telco but to apps.
– While smartphones grow, feature phones are also providing richer experience.
– Smartphone will exceed feature phones in Indonesia within 4 years, however feature phones are also getting smarter.
– The future for telcos may be M money. Money attached to your phone or to your SIM/nb.
eCommerce – Tom Damek @ Lazada
– Stats: 250K visits a day at Lazada. 160M Internet users by 2016 in Indonesia and 150M middle class customers in Indonesia.
– When you live outside a big city, it is hard to get access to the latest things like in Jakarta, which is why ecommerce could be an opportunity.
– There are some real barriers in Indonesia: logistics and supply chain, payment methods. It is about finding innovative solutions to these problems.
– The most important thing is to establish trust for ecommerce.
Community-Building in SE Asia, Pivot: What to do? – Khailee Ng @ SAYS.com
– Adopt the Silicon Valley state of mind.
– Stop complaining about lack of talent — grow local talent instead.
– You can import world class talent. A lot of people are looking for a way out of their country.
– Plug into global best practices and capital.
– When it works — scale! Don’t be too cautious!
How Innovation Can Make You Run Longer – Peter Corbett @ iStrategy Labs
– Epic teams crystallize around a person first, but then around a culture.
– Being CEO can be seductive. But remember that it’s about the team, you don’t do most of the work. I don’t do most of the work.
– Give more than you take.
– Give without expectation.
– Find a mission greater than yourself.
In summary, a good event to find out more about the Indonesian market and realize the great potential and opportunities Indonesia can offer. To find out more about the event, check here