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Tokopedia wants to initiate RI version of Silicon Valley
PT Tokopedia, one of the biggest e-commerce players in Indonesia focusing on the marketplace sector, plans to initiate over the next five years the Indonesian version of the well-known start-up company complex, Silicon Valley, located in the US
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T Tokopedia, one of the biggest e-commerce players in Indonesia focusing on the marketplace sector, plans to initiate over the next five years the Indonesian version of the well-known start-up company complex, Silicon Valley, located in the US.
'Our vision is to develop Indonesia through the Internet,' Tokopedia founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya mentioned in a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.
In October, the company received a US$100 million investment from SoftBank Internet and Media and Sequoia Capital. It was the very first time that these firms invested in Indonesia.
Softbank is the biggest investor for Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba, while Sequoia is the initial investor for Apple, CISCO, Oracle, Yahoo, Google, Linkedin, Youtube, WhatsApp and Instagram.
William said that with such investments the company would find an ideal place, such as the Googleplex in Silicon Valley, to develop its Internet business.
'We will build something that is similar to Googleplex in Indonesia, let's call it a Tokopedia campus. We are still looking for a perfect place [for the Indonesian version of Googleplex] and we will heavily invest for it,' he said, adding that such a place would absorb tons of manpower, which would contribute a great deal of tax revenue to the region.
'We are really inspired by the US. Silicon Valley became the Silicon Valley that we know today because there was a company who started the business. So, there has to be a company in Indonesia to start it ['¦] perhaps [we won't] build it in Jakarta.'
On the same day, Tokopedia officially announced rising star Chelsea Elizabeth Islan as its brand ambassador.
'Chelsea Islan has her own idealism, which makes us sure that she is the right figure to represent Tokopedia's vision and mission for Indonesia,' said chief operating officer Leontinus Alpha Edison.
'She shares the same dream with us.' (ask/nfo)(+++)
