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The rise of local app developers
Local talent: Google vice president for developer product group Jason Titus (third left) talks to the founders of a number of Indonesian app developers: (left to right) Roki Roki Soeharyo from TouchTen, Andi Taru and Idawati from Educa Studio, Irwanto from Tebak Gambar and Calvin Kizana from Inovidea Magna Global
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Local talent: Google vice president for developer product group Jason Titus (third left) talks to the founders of a number of Indonesian app developers: (left to right) Roki Roki Soeharyo from TouchTen, Andi Taru and Idawati from Educa Studio, Irwanto from Tebak Gambar and Calvin Kizana from Inovidea Magna Global.(Courtesy of Google)" border="0" height="341" width="511">Local talent: Google vice president for developer product group Jason Titus (third left) talks to the founders of a number of Indonesian app developers: (left to right) Roki Roki Soeharyo from TouchTen, Andi Taru and Idawati from Educa Studio, Irwanto from Tebak Gambar and Calvin Kizana from Inovidea Magna Global.(Courtesy of Google)Indonesiaâs mobile application developers are on the rise, in line with the high growth of smartphone sales across the archipelago and the increasing social and entertainment needs of users.
Local developers are exploring strategies to build up their companies and compete in the rapidly growing industry.
Inovidea Magna Global is a local developer that is enjoying the rise of the digital era with its most popular product, PicMix.
PicMix is a photo sharing platform that has garnered a total of 25 million users worldwide. At a glance, it might look like the famous photo sharing app Instagram, but the companyâs CEO and founder Calvin Kizana has proven that PicMix offers different, and more interesting, features.
PicMix has lots of photo-editing tools, and it can also combine two or more photos in one collaged frame, with a wide range of frame selections of themes.
Moreover, users can also add text embellishments and stickers to photos, and share them on other social media platforms.
PicMix was initially developed for BlackBerry in 2012, and garnered 1 million users in just two months, before launching its Android and iOS versions.
Calvin said that today, the biggest group of users was in Indonesia, followed by South Africa.
But as a startup company, it also needs financial support for further developments.
âPicMix has in-app purchases from premium apps from which we can make money, but we canât rely on that as the amount is still too small,â said Calvin during the Indonesian Developer Showcase discussion, organized by Google Indonesia.
To solve the money issue, Calvin has collaborated with numerous brands â from food and beverage labels to automotive companies, giving those partners the privilege of adding their labels to PicMixâs frame options.
The company also holds photo contests where users have to use certain branded frames to enter.
âSo our monetizing strategy here is more a business-to-business platform, not from the users,â Calvin said.
Also present at the discussion was co-founder and COO of game developer TouchTen Roki Soeharyo.
He said that his company used similar monetization strategies to PicMix, collaborating with brands and organizing competitions as the paid versions of their app had not performed well either.
âWe recorded only 2 percent of users using our paid apps. So most of the money still comes from advertising,â
But as the company is currently strengthening its local market, TouchTen has also teamed up with local social media influences, such as Dagelan, to develop mobile games applications.
âIn the first years, more than 90 percent of our users were from abroad, but in 2013, we decided to concentrate on local market by creating more local contents as we believe that Indonesia will become a strong market for mobile games,â Roki said.
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span class="inline inline-center">Local talent: Google vice president for developer product group Jason Titus (third left) talks to the founders of a number of Indonesian app developers: (left to right) Roki Roki Soeharyo from TouchTen, Andi Taru and Idawati from Educa Studio, Irwanto from Tebak Gambar and Calvin Kizana from Inovidea Magna Global.(Courtesy of Google)
Indonesia's mobile application developers are on the rise, in line with the high growth of smartphone sales across the archipelago and the increasing social and entertainment needs of users.
Local developers are exploring strategies to build up their companies and compete in the rapidly growing industry.
Inovidea Magna Global is a local developer that is enjoying the rise of the digital era with its most popular product, PicMix.
PicMix is a photo sharing platform that has garnered a total of 25 million users worldwide. At a glance, it might look like the famous photo sharing app Instagram, but the company's CEO and founder Calvin Kizana has proven that PicMix offers different, and more interesting, features.
PicMix has lots of photo-editing tools, and it can also combine two or more photos in one collaged frame, with a wide range of frame selections of themes.
Moreover, users can also add text embellishments and stickers to photos, and share them on other social media platforms.
PicMix was initially developed for BlackBerry in 2012, and garnered 1 million users in just two months, before launching its Android and iOS versions.
Calvin said that today, the biggest group of users was in Indonesia, followed by South Africa.
But as a startup company, it also needs financial support for further developments.
'PicMix has in-app purchases from premium apps from which we can make money, but we can't rely on that as the amount is still too small,' said Calvin during the Indonesian Developer Showcase discussion, organized by Google Indonesia.
To solve the money issue, Calvin has collaborated with numerous brands ' from food and beverage labels to automotive companies, giving those partners the privilege of adding their labels to PicMix's frame options.
The company also holds photo contests where users have to use certain branded frames to enter.
'So our monetizing strategy here is more a business-to-business platform, not from the users,' Calvin said.
Also present at the discussion was co-founder and COO of game developer TouchTen Roki Soeharyo.
He said that his company used similar monetization strategies to PicMix, collaborating with brands and organizing competitions as the paid versions of their app had not performed well either.
'We recorded only 2 percent of users using our paid apps. So most of the money still comes from advertising,'
But as the company is currently strengthening its local market, TouchTen has also teamed up with local social media influences, such as Dagelan, to develop mobile games applications.
'In the first years, more than 90 percent of our users were from abroad, but in 2013, we decided to concentrate on local market by creating more local contents as we believe that Indonesia will become a strong market for mobile games,' Roki said.
Since 2009, TouchTen has released a number of games, including Ramen Chain, Sushi Chain, Panda Adventures, Teka Teki Saku, and the latest one, Fishing Town, which collaborates with WWF Indonesia.
According to Google and research company TNS Australia, users installed 31 applications on average this year, and 34 percent of users were willing to buy apps for up to a maximum price of around
Rp 48,000 (US$3.43)
'The most popular [types of] applications this year were social media, followed by communication, search apps, entertainment and games,' Inge Wong, Google's strategic partner manager of apps monetization, said.
She also said that Indonesia had seen $181.1 million in games revenue this year, making it the fourth biggest country in Southeast Asia after Thailand at $230.3 million, Malaysia $214.2 million and Singapore at $201.6 million.
While TouchTen and Inovidea have entered the international markets, Tebak Gambar and Educa Studio are currently working toward that.
The 23-year-old Irwanto Widyatri, co-founder of Tebak Gambar, said Tebak Gambar was first developed as a quiz on social media in 2012, and its surging popularity triggered Irwanto to develop the application with two friends.
So far, the game, which involves connecting parts of pictures to form words or sentences taken from slang, funny phrases or certain events, has been downloaded around 7 million times.
'We're now preparing to launch the English version, called Matching Images, for an international audience,' he said.
Meanwhile, Educa Studio, that develops games and learning applications for children, plans to enter the US market next year.
'We chose the US because it's the biggest market in the world. It's not easy to get in there because the market only wants the best quality of every product,' co-founder Andi Taru said.
To get there, he added, the Salatiga-based company had looked for investors who did not just provide them with money, but also helped them to scale up the company.
'Our next task is to make ourselves more visible in the global market, and we have set up plans for that,' Andi said.
