Maintaining an Internet-based business is never easy, especially when similar ventures spring up daily.

The two founders of online giant Kaskus, Andrew Darwis and Ken Dean Lawadinata, admitted that their most major concern was keeping an eye out for competitors.

'€œNew competitors, changes in users'€™ preferences and other things make us worry all the time. In fact, we'€™ve been constantly worried since we got into this business,'€ Ken told The Jakarta Post at an event to introduce a biopic of the pair.

However, they said, the anxiety spurred them to remain creative.

In the fast-paced digital world, businesses have to move fast to create new ideas.

'€œThe Internet industry is growing now in Indonesia, and we have to keep up with it, to keep making innovations, creating things that are relevant to modern life,'€ Andrew said.

'€œIf we don'€™t adapt fast, we'€™ll end up like Friendster. Luckily, we have survived the Friendster, Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram periods,'€ he went on.

Launched in 2002, Friendster was a pioneer of social networking websites, but folded in the face of competition from Facebook and other such sites. In 2011, Friendster changed its business model and become a social online gaming platform, before ceasing operations on June 14 this year.

The Kaskus team had a range of strategies to survive the competition, Ken said.

'€œWe have two main different focuses in Kaskus, e-commerce and our forum, and development strategies have to cover both,'€ he said.

For the forum, Ken said that the team was looking to add gamification features to encourage deeper engagement from Kaskus users.

'€œOur community forum is still big, and the members enjoy being part of it. We want to strengthen that by adding gamification, so in addition to communicating, members can also have fun,'€ he said.

Andrew Darwis

Ken refused to reveal the details of the company'€™s e-commerce strategy, but explained that it would involve a stronger platform where people could do business with less capital and lower risks.

The firm'€™s strategies are not only designed to strengthen their position in the country'€™s digital scene, but also to encourage people to enjoy the benefits of the Internet.

'€œThe Internet has been widely accepted in Indonesia, but if you ask me whether it'€™s enough, I'€™d say it wasn'€™t, and maybe far from enough,'€ Ken said.

Internet users, he suggested, emphasized the entertainment aspects of the web over the practical side.

'€œMy guess is that within two or three years, almost everything we do will be connected to the Internet: health, household needs, schools, everything.'€

Will Kaskus tap into those markets, too?

'€œIf the Internet can solve the needs of Indonesian people, we will try to provide the solution, but we can'€™t do everything,'€ he said.

Kaskus, short for Kasak Kusuk, was developed by Andrew and his two friends as a project when they were studying at Seattle University in the US.

The two initial partners left Kaskus as the project was not profitable, while Andrew was more than happy to manage it for free as a hobby.

At first, he earned US$7 per month for web hosting from his own pocket, but after finding a steady job as a web developer for US-based lyrics.com, he used his income to add more servers.

Andrew enjoyed life in the US and was reluctant to return home when he was asked by Ken, his cousin, to develop the website in Indonesia.

'€œIf Ken hadn'€™t persuaded me to return home, Kaskus might not be like this,'€ Andrew said.

On a brief trip home, Andrew visited a coffee shop with Ken, where he noticed that many fellow café-goers were opening Kaskus, laughing and enjoying themselves.

Ken Dean Lawadinata

'€œThat made me very proud. That'€™s when I agreed to return to Indonesia,'€ he said.

In 2008, they moved the whole operation to Indonesia, setting up their first office in Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, with only two employees and eight servers.

'€œThe Internet in Indonesia was a luxury back then, but it had been part of our daily life when we were in the US. I believed that it would be big in Indonesia too, and if that happened when we were not here, we would miss the opportunity. We came at the right time,'€ Ken said.

Ken became the CEO and Andrew the chief technology officer (CTO) of the company.

Ken, who dropped out of Seattle University, said that running an online business was not easy. At one point, they were deceived, losing all of their data and having to shut down their operations for two weeks.

But they got up again.

Kaskus grew to be an online community encompassing all manner of interests, from hobbies to pornography '€” although the site shut down this latter category, known as BB 17, when the government issued the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law banning adult content on websites.

Instead of decreasing, the number of Kaskusers, the name given to Kaskus members, tripled after the closing of that service.

The growing business attracted Global Digital Prima of Djarum Group to invest in Kaskus in 2011.

The company moved headquarters to a larger office that can house 100 employees and 96 servers.

In 2013, Ken and Andrew resigned from their positions as CEO and CTO, becoming joint chairs and advisors to Kaskus.

According to commercial web traffic data provider Alexa Internet, Kaskus ranked in July 2014 as the 285th as the most-visited site in the world and the seventh most-visited in Indonesia.

It now has 8 million active members, 30,000 communities, 28 million visitors each month and 700 million page views per month.

'€œI never thought Kaskus could be this big, as it was just a school project. I still can'€™t believe it now,'€ Andrew said.

'€” photos courtesy of 700 Pictures