Google Indonesia managing director Randy Jusuf said during a recent press briefing that the tech giant’s decision was spurred by the findings of a recent company report that showed the country’s digital economy had huge “headroom” for growth and could triple to US$100 billion by 2025 from $27 billion this year.

The growth would be attributed to, among other things, SME entrepreneurs, such as Ikmaludin Azis, who increased his revenue tenfold just by improving his business’ presence on Google Maps.

Ikmaludin is the owner of the Moga River Outbound Adventure Park in Pemalang regency, Central Java. His park, which opened in 2014, offers river rafting and flying fox rides at an affordable price of between Rp 100,000 ($7) and Rp 130,000 per person.

The adventure park, however, is a 1.5-hour drive from Tegal, the nearest city, and one hour from Pemalang city.

“We didn’t know how to market the park, so we only saw around 60 visitors each month,” he said.

However, Ikmaludin said that business picked up after he started promoting the park online using the tricks he learned at one of Google’s training programs, Gapura Digital. His park now receives around 600 visitors a month, earning a monthly revenue of Rp 69 million.

Ikmaludin’s experience supports a recent survey by accounting firm Deloitte, which calculated that local SMEs could boost their revenue by up to 80 percent through the utilization of digital technology as simple as selling and marketing online through e-commerce platforms and social media.

Increasing the revenue of SMEs, which employ over 90 percent of the domestic workforce, is expected to improve the nation’s overall welfare.

“With 50 percent internet penetration, a strengthening digital economy and an increasing number of startups, this country is gearing up to be a digital powerhouse,” Google Indonesia’s Randy said.

He added that 1 million entrepreneurs would emerge from his company’s digital entrepreneurship training programs such as the Gapura Digital classes, Google BisnisKu registration initiatives and the Womenwill course, which was exclusively for women.

He said that entrepreneurs, who register for the programs at gapuradigital.withgoogle.com, would be trained in the e-commerce basics of social media marketing, website management and search engine optimization.

Google Indonesia head of marketing Veronica Utami added that the Gapura Digital program was currently available in 12 major cities, and that the company planned to expand the program to more cities next year.

She added that it also planned to expand the Womenwill program, currently only available in four major cities, to all 12 cities covered by the Gapura Digital program.

Veronica said that expanding the reach of the entrepreneurship program was part of Google’s latest digital economy campaign, Bangun Indonesia Rame-Rame (Build Indonesia Together) a glocalization initiative based around the collectivist concept of gotong-royong (communal work) native to Indonesia.

“We realize that Google alone cannot build the ecosystem to push digital economy growth, so we need to work with ministries, private companies and associations,” she said.

Similarly, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya praised the company’s effort in promoting digitalization, saying that it was in line with the government’s target, especially his own ministry’s.

He said that the government was ready to help Google fund and train up to 150,000 of the targeted 1 million SME entrepreneurs on the condition that their businesses were related to tourism. (nor)

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