The age of the homegrown start-up as the main engine of innovation may be ending. Ironically, the future of Indonesia’s digital landscape now lies in the hands of the very institutions it once sought to disrupt: Big Tech as well as the country’s conventional corporations.

In today’s economy, acquisitions have become the new battleground for dominance. Big Tech, armed with deep capital and massive data ecosystems, is now the ultimate consolidator. Tokopedia’s acquisition by ByteDance is emblematic of this, while the rumored Grab-GoTo deal only reinforces the message. Once celebrated as the flag bearers of Indonesia’s digital independence, these platforms are now becoming part of larger global and regional ecosystems.

This shift is neither a tragedy nor a triumph, but a clear signal that Indonesia’s digital evolution has entered a more complex, mature phase, one that is defined by capital, data and ecosystem control. Whoever commands these will shape the country’s digital destiny. And increasingly, that power no longer rests with scrappy start-ups, but with established corporations and foreign tech giants.

A decade ago, Indonesia’s digital narrative was built around a single premise that traditional corporations were too rigid, too slow and too bureaucratic to survive the digital age. Start-ups, by contrast, were to be the heroic disruptors: agile, mission-driven and customer-obsessed. That narrative inspired a generation of entrepreneurs and fueled massive investment.

Yet more than 10 years later, the cracks are showing. Many start-ups have failed to reach profitability while others have collapsed under weak governance or reckless financial practices; the same issues I discussed in my previous op-ed in this paper, “Fixing Governance in Indonesia’s Start-up Economy” (Aug. 21, 2025). Those that remain are struggling to sustain growth in a tougher, more disciplined market.

Meanwhile the so-called old guard, the conventional corporations once deemed dinosaurs, have quietly mastered digital transformation. Bank Mandiri’s Livin’, Djarum Group’s Blibli, Blu by BCA and INA Digital by GovTech Peruri are proof that stability, scale and discipline can coexist with innovation. Bureaucracy, once seen as a disadvantage, has turned into an asset in building sustainable digital businesses.