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William Tanuwijaya named 2021 Businessperson of the Year
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(Courtesy of Tokopedia)
W
illiam Tanuwijaya, founder and CEO of leading technology company Tokopedia, has been named one of Fortune Indonesia’s 2021 Businesspersons of the Year.
Utilizing Fortune’s United States methodology, 20 Indonesian businesspersons have been named in this year’s edition of the award. Criteria include company performance throughout 2020 and 2021, as well as indicators such as transformative leadership, effective application of good corporate governance (GCG) and adaptive corporate actions.
Behind the success and laurels of Tokopedia, William comes from a rather modest background.
Born in Pematangsiantar, North Sumatra, William left his hometown to pursue higher education in Jakarta. Unfortunately, in his second year majoring in information technology at Bina Nusantara University, William’s father fell ill.
To make ends meet and continue his education, William took a side job at an internet café. The situation, coupled with his penchant for the internet, resulted in the birth of Tokopedia, which began from an idea he had with his friend Leontinus Alpha Edison in 2009.
As part of his founding role at Tokopedia, William saw the e-commerce platform grow in the past decade.
Tokopedia’s early start was rather rocky, only attracting its first investor, East Ventures, in 2010. East Ventures took a chance on the homegrown platform, making Tokopedia the first entity in its portfolio.
Along the way, more and more investors flocked to Tokopedia as its business grew. Its latest milestone in May saw a merger between the platform and on-demand service platform Gojek, forming the biggest tech company in Indonesia, GoTo.
“If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together,” William said in an interview with Fortune Indonesia.
In 2020, GoTo Group recorded a gross transaction value (GTV) of US$22 billion, processing more than 1.8 billion transactions in the same period. As of December 2020, more than 2 million driver-partners and 11 million merchants were registered in the GoTo ecosystem.
Going forward, GoTo plans to hold an initial public offering (IPO) in the near future, with experts predicting that the milestone will become the largest IPO in Indonesia.
