Erick Thohir: Telkom And Telkomsel Will Revamp The Business Model, Both Will Play In Different Segments

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of SOEs)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir revealed that in the future PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk and its subsidiary PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) will change the company's business model. That is, both will play in different segments.

Furthermore, Erick said that Telkom will focus on the business to business (B2B) market or the corporate segment. Meanwhile, its subsidiary, Telkomsel, will focus on the business to consumer (B2C) business model or the consumer market.

"When I criticized the President Director (Telkom) and his staff, they agreed with me to change the business model, whose name is Telkom going to B2B, Telkom will focus on towers, focus on fiber optic infrastructure, data center, cloud, and 5G. Then what about Telkomsel's brother, will focus on B2C," he said at the Post-pandemic BUMN Strategy Scientific Oration, quoted Monday, November 29.

Furthermore, Erick Thohir revealed the reasons behind the change of Telkomsel's business model to B2C. This is because he does not want the large market of Indonesian youth to be exploited by other nations. One of them, online games.

"Telkomsel B2C, because why do I describe the first wave, second wave, who plays online games? The games are all foreign, then we are told to pay, keep telling the team to pay, make the league have to pay, the game period is foreign," he said. .

"Who likes drakor, my son also likes BTS moreover, it's ok. But unfortunately we have a market, especially now that our younger generation in the future is getting more and more population. So what I emphasize is that our young generation should not be consumptive but must also be productive," he continued.

Erick said the company's business model at the Telecommunications BUMN would be the same as the banking BUMN. Where BRI will focus on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Meanwhile, Bank Mandiri will handle large corporations.

Furthermore, Erick said that the business model changes at Telkom were carried out so that the company would get out of the sunset of the telecommunications industry, namely SMS and voice call services. This is because the service is currently being disrupted by digital.

"We are positioning Telkomsel as an enabler and aggregator for local content, local games, local creators, for fintech, healthtech, edutech, even God willing, in mid-December the President will launch the Red and White Fund which is supported to fund Indonesian startups," he said.