Tokopedia

Summary

PT Tokopedia is an Indonesian e-commerce company.[2] Tokopedia is a subsidiary of a new holding company called GoTo, following a merger with Gojek on 17 May 2021.[3][4] It is one of the most visited e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.[5]

PT Tokopedia
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryInternet
Founded6 February 2009; 15 years ago (2009-02-06)
FounderWilliam Tanuwijaya
Leontinus Alpha Edison
HeadquartersJakarta, Indonesia
Area served
Indonesia
Key people
William Tanuwijaya
(Co-founder and CEO)
Leontinus Alpha Edison
(Co-founder and COO)
ProductsElectronic commerce
Services
Number of employees
4,700 (2019)[1]
ParentGoTo (25%), TikTok (75%)
Websitetokopedia.com

Tokopedia is one of Indonesia's unicorn companies, alongside Bukalapak, Gojek, OVO, and Traveloka.

As of December 2020, Tokopedia claims to have more than 350 million product listings and 42 digital products, and serves over 100 million monthly active users as well as over 9.7 million merchants on its platform.[6]

History edit

William Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison came up with the idea for Tokopedia in 2007. While reflecting on his childhood experience, Tanuwijaya realized that access to products such as books differed between small towns and big cities, and that technology could provide better access to products. The duo launched Tokopedia two years later with starting capital from an acquaintance.[7]

Toko is Indonesian for "shop", and is the first half of the portmanteau of the company's name, concatenated with "encyclopedia".[8] The choice of this designation is to reflect their objective of becoming an all-encompassing marketplace for Indonesians.[7] Tokopedia has since expanded its business to cover the fintech, payments, logistics, and retail sectors.

Since 2017, Tokopedia's office resides in a 53-floor building called the Tokopedia Tower, located in the central business district of Jakarta.[citation needed]

As of 2018, it is claimed that Tokopedia's products and services are accessible in 93% of sub-districts across Indonesia.[9]

In March 2023, Tokopedia announced its new management structure with Melissa Siska Juminto appointed as President of E-Commerce for Tokopedia and Director/Chief Human Resources Officer for GoTo.[10] Melissa was previously the COO of Tokopedia since 2018.[citation needed]

On December 11, 2023, TikTok, operating under ByteDance, officially announced the acquisition of 75% of Tokopedia's shares. This investment is valued at 1.5 billion US dollars, or around 23.4 trillion Indonesian Rupiah. This collaboration is a step for TikTok to expand its operations in the Indonesian e-commerce sector, particularly through the TikTok Shop platform. Although TikTok now holds a large portion of Tokopedia's shares, 25% of Tokopedia's shares are still held by GoTo, the corporate group that previously encompassed Tokopedia. This collaboration does not affect the shareholding of Tokopedia in PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk (GoTo).[11][12]

Finance edit

In 2009, Tokopedia received seed funding from PT Indonusa Dwitama of IDR 2.5 billion. Tokopedia later attracted capital injections from venture capitalists including East Ventures (in 2010), CyberAgent Ventures (in 2011), NetPrice (in 2012), and SoftBank Ventures Korea (in 2013).[13]

In October 2014, Tokopedia became the first technology company in Southeast Asia to receive a US$100 million investment, led by Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI).[14]

In April 2016, Tokopedia raised another US$147 million.[15] A year later, it received US$1.1 billion in a new round of investment, led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.[16] In 2018, an additional US$1.1 billion was injected into the company, in a round led by existing investors Alibaba and SoftBank, raising the company's valuation to approximately US$7 billion.[17]

In December 2023, Tokopedia got a $1.5 billion investment from ByteDance’s social media platform, Tiktok.[18]

Products and services edit

 
Tokopedia's official mascot, named "Toped".

Tokopedia provides a customer-to-customer (C2C) platform that is free to use for merchants and buyers. Brands operating on a business-to-customer (B2C) basis have the option to set up verified, official stores on the platform too. Products listed on Tokopedia vary widely across at least 25 categories, ranging from food and beverages to beauty and fashion products, and more.[citation needed]

Tokopedia also offers digital products such as credit, bill payments, voucher and ticket purchases, and others.[citation needed]

In 2018, Tokopedia launched Mitra Tokopedia to offer fintech solutions such as digital wallets (e-wallets), virtual credit cards, insurance, and more. Mitra is targeted at small business owners such as grocery stores and family-owned warungs.[19]

In 2019, Tokopedia launched a smart fulfilment service called TokoCabang, which helps sellers to expand their business across Indonesia. Tokopedia Salam was launched not long after—a service that supports Sharia market needs in Indonesia by providing Umrah services.[20] Users can also purchase a variety of Muslim-friendly products and services through Salam. Sharia-compliant payment methods and investment products are also available on Tokopedia's platform.[21]

Controversies edit

Tokopedia suffered a data breach on 2 May 2020, when the personal information of 15 million users were hacked, including their gender, locations, usernames, full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and hashed passwords. The hacker, under the pseudonym ShinyHunters, put up the entire database purported to have 91 million records for sale at a price of US$5,000.[22][23][24]

Tokopedia emphasized that the crucial data of its users, such as passwords, will remain protected and encrypted, and data-related payment methods stored on the platform were not affected by the breach.[25] To further investigate the matter, the company has said that they will work closely with key government institutions, including the Ministry of Communication and Informatics and the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), as well as engage world-class, independent agencies specializing in cybersecurity to identify ways to enhance our protection of Tokopedia users.[26]

Tokopedia has been listed as a "notorious market" since 2018 by the USTR for having high volumes of counterfeit and pirated product listings.[27][28][29]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Tokopedia Rangkul Difabel untuk Wujudkan Pemerataan Ekonomi Digital". akurat.co. 7 December 2019.
  2. ^ "About Tokopedia". Tokopedia.
  3. ^ Daga, Anshuman; Potkin, Fanny (17 May 2021). "Indonesia's Gojek, Tokopedia to create biggest local tech group". Reuters.
  4. ^ Lee, Yoolim (17 May 2021). "Gojek to Merge With Tokopedia to Create Indonesia Tech Giant". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  5. ^ "Tokopedia reigns as most visited local e-commerce site on desktops". The Jakarta Post. 20 October 2019.
  6. ^ Afifa, Laila (8 September 2020). "Tokopedia Sees Exponential Growth in Merchants amid Pandemic". Tempo. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  7. ^ a b Florene, Ursula (22 March 2021). "Inside Tokopedia, the Indonesian e-commerce company offering almost everything". KrASIA. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  8. ^ Tung, Hans; Taslim, Dimitra (7 November 2019). "S2 Episode 6: William and Patrick of Tokopedia: from Selling T-Shirts to Driving 1.5% of Indonesia's GDP". Evolving for The Next Billion.
  9. ^ Mulia, Khamila (22 November 2018). "Tokopedia surges to most valuable unicorn in Indonesia after $1b funding from SoftBank". KrASIA. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  10. ^ "GoTo unveils new leadership structure; ex-FM, Northstar's Walujo to join as commissioners". DealStreetAsia. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  11. ^ "TikTok Kuasai 75 Persen Saham Tokopedia, Bayar Rp 23 Triliun" (in Indonesian). Kompas.com. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Akuisisi TikTok Atas Tokopedia: Antara Peluang dan Ancaman Geopolitik" (in Indonesian). Katanetizen Kompas.com. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  13. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  14. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  15. ^ Wee, Willis (8 April 2016). "Indonesian marketplace Tokopedia raises $147m". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  16. ^ Russell, Jon. "Alibaba leads $1.1B investment in Indonesia-based e-commerce firm Tokopedia". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  17. ^ Muskita, Putra (12 December 2018). "Tokopedia raises $1.1b from SoftBank, Alibaba to evolve into infrastructure-as-a-service". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  18. ^ Park, Kate (11 December 2023). "TikTok to invest $1.5B in GoTo's Indonesia e-commerce business Tokopedia". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  19. ^ Mulia, Khamila (16 November 2018). "Indonesian Tokopedia launches service to bridge online and offline retailing". KrASIA. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  20. ^ Yasmin, Nur (27 November 2019). "Tokopedia Dips Toes Into $1.8b Umrah Market". Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  21. ^ Mulia, Khamila (4 November 2019). "Tokopedia launches sharia-compliant service with more than 21 million Muslim-friendly products". KrASIA. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  22. ^ Cimpanu, Catalin. "Hacker leaks 15 million records from Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest online store". ZDNet.
  23. ^ "Indonesia's Tokopedia Probes Alleged Data Leak of 91 Million Users". NDTV Gadgets 360.
  24. ^ "Hacker sells 91 million Tokopedia accounts, cracked passwords shared". BleepingComputer.
  25. ^ "Data breach jeopardizes more than 15 million Tokopedia users, report finds". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  26. ^ Afifa, Laila (12 May 2020). "Tokopedia Works with 'World-class Cyber Agencies' to Secure Data". Tempo. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  27. ^ "2018 Out of Cycle Review of Notorious Markets" (PDF). Office of the United States Trade Representative. 25 April 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  28. ^ "2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy" (PDF). Office of the United States Trade Representative. 17 February 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  29. ^ "2022 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy" (PDF). Office of the United States Trade Representative. 31 January 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2023.