JD.ID Buying And Selling Site Becomes Indonesia's Sixth Unicorn

JAKARTA - Recently, JD.ID was reported to have breached a company valuation that exceeds 1 billion US dollars (US). This certainly makes it a unicorn in the sixth position in Indonesia.

After previously there were five startups in the country that had unicorn status, namely Gojek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, Bukalapak and Ovo.

As reported by Tech In Asia, rumors circulated that JD.ID had received financial support from giant Gojek. However, JD.ID did not deny the rumors, but did not disclose the question of how many figures were obtained from the funds.

Responding to this, the Minister of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo), Johnny G Plate said that by bearing the status of a unicorn, it means that JD.ID will bring the e-commerce sector in Indonesia more developed.

"If JD.ID is a global company. What he said is an Indonesian unicorn. That means that digital business in Indonesia is developing well," said Johnny, at the DPR Building recently as quoted by CNBC.

Plate also acknowledges that the opportunity for e-commerce is huge in Indonesia. But it could be more than that, he also explained that it was not only seeing the business that was developing but also being aligned with the empowerment of the community.

"But the most important thing is not only for medium to high but small medium businesses. Farmers and fishermen can go there. Enter the marketplace," he added.

To hold the status of a unicorn, JD.ID said, did joint ventures with several digital companies with giant funding, namely Provident Capital, a local investment company that is also a Gojek investor.

It is known, JD.ID itself has started operating in Indonesia since 2015. This company is a challenger to other e-commerce companies such as Tokopedia, Shopee, Blibli and Lazada. Meanwhile, E-commerce from outside Indonesia or representing the Southeast Asia region is still controlled by Shopee and Lazada.

But so far, Tokopedia is still the most visited e-commerce site, followed by Shopee, Bukalapak and Lazada. While JD.ID took sixth place.

For information, Indonesia has an attractive e-commerce market for investors. In 2019, the e-commerce market has reached US $ 20.9 billion and is predicted to quadruple by 2025 to US $ 82 billion. This increase is based on increasing internet access on various devices.