Internet and e-commerce industry in Indonesia

Indonesia, located in Southeast Asia and Oceania, is a country famous for multiplicity of the islands comprising it. So, over 17,500 small islands enter the Republic of Indonesia organizing so called archipelago. Moreover, Indonesia considered to be the world’s largest archipelagic state. Indonesia also represents the world's fourth most populous country, with 237m residents, and has the largest Muslim population in the world.

  Internet for the country is relatively new type of communication. Commercial Internet services came to Indonesia in 1995, though broadband Internet services have been still very much in their infancy. 

 Nevertheless, several internet services are available in Indonesia, ranging from ADSL to mobile internet. 

 Originally broadband connection in Indonesia was available via telephone lined-based internet service, offered by Telekomunikasi Indonesia (PT Telkom), a main player supervising most fixed telephone line networks. As for the ADSL connection, PT Telkom also provides such a service, dominating on the market as before. ADSL subscribers usually are obliged to pay two separates bills, one for the ADSL line charges to PT Telkom and internet service charges to the certain ISP.

 Internet charge in Indonesia, which was in 2007 among the highest in the world, may be reduced to 50% of current charge by 2011, according to old.thejakartapost.com.

 Unfortunately, broadband internet services are still mainly available in most big cities, such as Greater Jakarta and Surabaya.

 3G cellular and 3.5G HSDPA services are the types of wireless Internet connection, being developed currently in the country, Most of the major cellular telecommunication provider provides this high-speed mobile internet service. They include Indosat, Telkomsel, Excelcomindo (XL) and 3. Also, the usage of EV-DO has been applied into service by Indonesian CDMA cellular provider, which includes Mobile8, Esia and Telkom Flexi.

 Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Indonesia is .id. One year registration agreement for .id ccTLD, and particularly for second level domains .co.id and .web.id , costs $449, two years - $998. That is very much expensive in comparison with two years agreements for China’s .cn that costs only $70 and India’s .in domain for $99. It’s still more expensive relative to Malaysia’s .my that is worth $299 and Vietnam’s .vn that costs $499. (http://www.rwgusa.com)

 co.id serves for Commercial Entities, while web.id — for. Informal Organizations/Personal. Besides, the other second level domains exists in Indonesia, such as following:

 • ac.id — Academic Institutions 
 • net.id — Communication/ISP Company 
 • or.id — Formal Organizations/Community 
 • sch.id — School 
 • mil.id — Military 
 • go.id — Government and Governmental System 
 • war.net.id — Internet Cafe (had been removed). The "war" in war.net.id is short for "Warung Internet" or net café.

 As for the Internet penetration, by 2009, Indonesia had revealed an estimated 25 million subscribers, reflecting an enormous penetration level growth of over 1,150% for the period of 2000-2009, compared to just 2 million in 2000. However, currently, these figures represent only 10% of the population getting Internet access. Nevertheless, Indonesia is among Asia top 10 Internet countries, occupying the fifth position, with a huge gap left behind by China, Japan, India and South Korea, according to internetworldstats.com.

 PC penetration is also relatively slow. Currently, there are over 6,000 local companies producing computer equipment, however they are typically small in size and the large foreign players continue to play a dominant role in the market. Pirated software and counterfeit computer equipment and mobile-phones are readily available. 

 Such a low level of PC and Internet penetration is explained by Indonesia’s political instability, volatile economy and half-hearted telecommunications deregulation that have created a high-risk environment for investors, and have considerably slowed the pace of progress in the ICT sector.

 Over the last few years, Telkom, as the second largest Southeast Asian cellphone company, is investing more in development of high-speed Internet services targeting to counter market share gains by new entrants in the cellphone industry. Telkom, as intends to raise the number of its high-speed Internet users to two million by 2010. 

 Concerning the e-commerce sector of Indonesia’s ICT infrastructure, it’s being advanced along with the Internet development. That’s why e-commerce sector is still to be developed. 

 Meantime, increasing number of e-commerce providers are appearing in the country, some of them reached more success in this type of business, others – less. professionalontheweb.com and alibaba.com offer a list of e-commerce solutions, engaged in e-business advancement, available in Indonesia, most of them provides web-site design and development. Some of them are listed below:

 • chazzuka – offers e-commerce web design, CMS, CRM and Custom web application development.
 • Ravellino – markets itself as a highly motivated Web/Multimedia/Graphics designer looking for a new and challenging position.
 • poetra-one – offers web site development and programming for businesses
 • Mindjob advertising – offers promotion services for clients product and services
 • Empower Corporation – markets itself as a global Internet-based enterprise aiming to achieve e-commerce revolution
 • Remidian Law Office - provides telecom, IT and e-commerce service
 • JW Consulting - offers E-commerce website development service
 • Global Intermedia, PT - offers Web development, Web hosting, domain names, marketing and e-commerce
 • Pt. Microtek Informa Solusindo – supplies e-commerce solutions service.

Over the last several years, HYIPs (high-yield investment program) are getting more and more popularity among Indonesians. Notably, up to 25% of every HYIP’s traffic comes from Indonesia. 

 Problems with inferior telecommunications infrastructure were likely to continue to impede Internet growth. However, the country is considered to have enormous potential as an online market. So, Indonesia reveals good signs of ICT and e-commerce development urging to reach leadership in the region.