Indonesia is the largest e-commerce marketplace in Southeast Asia. Online transactions in the country have amounted to US$5 billion, while transactions in informal e-commerce reached US$3 billion.
It is estimated that there are 30 million Indonesian citizens who transact through online marketplaces.
“E-commerce marketplace is projected to grow eight-folds from US$8 billion transactions in 2017 to US$55-65 billion by 2022,” stated Prof. Didi Achjari, Ph.D., at the 8TH floor of Faculty of Economic and Business UGM on Wednesday (9/13) during the 2018 Gadjah Mada International Conference on Economic and Business (GAMAICEB 2018). The Faculty held the Conference in the commemoration of its 63rd Anniversary. This year it raised the theme “Shaping the Future of Digital Economy: Trends, Opportunity, and Challenge”.
According to Didi, there are several reasons behind the rapid growth of e-commerce in Indonesia, including the rise in smartphone usage with Android technology and the millennial generations who are driving the digital world. Moreover, there is also the increasing involvement of entrepreneurs or SMEs in online marketing, investments in e-commerce, and government policies as supports.
Destya Danang Pradiptyo, MBA., from PT. Bukalapak startup explained the rise of digital economy was accelerated by the large number of internet users in Indonesia. Even so, there is still a gap between e-commerce in Java and outside the island.
“Infrastructure development is expected to boost the digital economic growth beyond Java,” he said.
Opening the GAMAICEB, the Faculty’s Dean, Eko Suwardi, M.Sc., Ph.D., mentioned the presence of digital economy has brought a number of discourses that are different from the current economy. It has been greatly shaped by the millennial generations.
“Its characteristics are straightforward, direct, and very efficient. All goods flow by delivery services.”
Arief Surya Irawan, S.E., M.Com.Ak., CA., claimed the topic of GAMAICEB stemmed from the trends in studying the influence of economic digitization on economy and business. Digitizing technology has become a necessity and UGM seeks to contribute to thinking and research to answer the society’s needs.
“We should be aware of what’s happening around us. We are in a different world, in the millennial era where everything is at our fingertips. That’s why we must act wisely in digitizing technology, both individually and as part of society.”
Attended by 130 participants from various universities, the 2018 GAMAICEB presented two international speakers, namely Prof. Noel Scott from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, and Vanessa Ratten, Ph.D., from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. The two speakers focused on ecotourism and discussed the influence of economic digitization on ecotourism.